Super Smash Bros Rumble
by YelloMage
Summary: Waking in the world of Smash Bros, Khlua finds that his world depends upon him doing his duty as a Smasher in the 4th Smash Tournament. However, a mysterious organization seems bent on stopping him. Why? Read to find out. [DISCONTINUED]
1. New Face In A New World

First of all, this is my first attempt at a fanfic, so I don't want any criticism, okay? I worked hard on this, and I hope that you like it.

Super Smash Bros. Rumble

Chapter 1

New Face In A New World

"Good night." Khlua called to his parents before dragging his sheets over his head. After a long day at school, he couldn't wait to start Winter Vacation. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke, he noticed that the room was completely dark, despite the fact that a windowsill was supposed to be a short three feet from his bed. He reached out to his left, hoping to grab hold of his glasses. Instead of glasses, he felt cold steel. He snatched his hand back and sat straight up. Finding that his sheets were no longer around him, he got out of bed and put his feet on the floor. Instead of plushy carpet, they landed on more cold steel. He fumbled around the room, hoping to grab hold of something. Finally, he hit a light switch.

The light blinded him for a second, but Khlua looked at the wall to his left. A mirror hung there, but he almost mistook it for some sort of cartoon poster.

Instead of his own, a canine face looked straight at him. He recognized his hazel eyes, but didn't remember going to sleep as a bipedal dog. The thing's fur was mostly cream colored, but was dappled with dark brown.

"Oh, I get it," he mumbled to himself, "I must be having one of those...lucid dream things.

A voice behind him suddenly said, "Well, awake, are we?:

Khlua swiftly turned around, but sighed in relief when he identified the speaker as a giant, floating white glove.

"Man, I must be playing way too many video games if I'm dreaming this up." he scolded himself for being scared of something so ridiculous.

"Oh?" the glove said again, "You think you're dreaming, do you?"

"Uh, yeah. I must have been playing too much Smash Bros. Now, If you don't mind, I'm going to wake up up now."

Khlua waited there for a minute or two, pinching himself every few seconds. However, he still stood in the steel room, staring at the flying hand.

Finally, the glove broke the silence. "Well, if you're so confident this is a dream, than why don't you come with me? After all, hardly anyone dies because of a little dream."

The glove turned around and floated away from Khlua. Khlua, not seeing a problem with this idea, promptly followed. Soon, he found himself in a majestic room with red carpeting and lavish furnishing. It was strange, but the carpet felt good on his feet...or, paws.

"Sit down," the glove gestured towards a very soft looking seat in front of the desk he was seated at. Well, as much as a glove can be seated, that is. Khlua sat down, finding the chair comfortable. The glove proceeded to speak.

"You may believe you are dreaming, but I assure you, you're not. As you may know already, my name is Master Hand, but please call me by my first name. Anyways, You are in what you call in your world 'Smash Brothers'. You see, we're starting another tournament, a game, and we vitally need someone from your world."

"Oh really? Why would you need someone from my 'world' anyways? Why don't you go after more video game characters?"

"Simple, really. You may not know this, but every world is affected by your world's actions. Thus, your world is the 'Prime'. To keep balance, we must give bits of our power to your world, or it will lose its power. This would react in the destruction of all other worlds."

"Honestly," Khlua muttered, looking around the room, "I'm not in the mood for a physics lesson. I just want to wake up. I mean, do you really think that I would believe all this? Seriously, my brain should think these things through before giving me dreams like this."

The glove remained calm, but he seemed to be getting a little frustrated. "What must I do to prove that you're not dreaming?"

Khlua laughed at the question. "I dunno, punch me. That would prove it." Master did so, knocking Khlua on the floor with a paw on his cheek.

"Ow... th-that felt... real..."

"That's right. Any questions?"

_This guy's not fooling around, is he?_ Khlua thought to himself. _This... this _is _real. _As Khlua snapped himself back to reality, he suddenly realized that he did have a question.

"Um," he mumbled, still holding a paw to his cheek, "what happened to me? I'm pretty sure I was a human when I went to sleep the other day."

The glove was obviously relieved that his otherworldly guest finally believed him. "Oh, you see, I had trouble transporting your body over here, so I simply put your mind into a body that I made."

_That's comforting._

"Well," Khlua started, "what do you need me to do here?"

_Please tell me to just wait around..._

"I'll need you to participate in this latest tournament!" Master exclaimed.

_Crap, I hate it when I'm wrong._

"But, I don't have any attacks, any moves. What could I do?"

"We'll figure that out along the way."

An awkward silence was broken when the glove snapped, and everything turned white.

When Khlua regained his vision, he and Master had reappeared outside a very large building.

"Now," the glove explained, "follow me in and sit in the auditorium. A few newcomers still haven't arrived, so make yourself comfortable, talk and get to know others."

Khlua did as told and found an empty seat in the front row next to a tall black and blue bipedal canine. As he sat down, the canine stopped talking to a few other creatures and focused his attention on the newcomer.

"Hello," he politely greeted, "My name is Lucario-"

"Yea," Khlua said, "I know. The Aura Pokemon, right?"

It didn't help in school, but Khlua was knowledgeable about Pokemon, at least. Hard not to if you never grew out of it.

Lucario seemed a little bit surprised. "Did we meet already? No, you must have heard about me in a previous tournament."

"Yea, I'm a big fan of yours actually. It's an honor to be here."

"I'm flattered."

A group of three people moved through the door of the auditorium and towards Khlua. He recognized two of them as Lloyd Irving and Colette Brunel from the Tales of Symphonia games. The other was a young girl with bright pink hair tied of to the sides of her head in messy bunches. She wore a black, sleeveless dress with a short bottom, so it looked more like a skirt. She carried two suitcases in one hand and a very large, menacing looking one across her shoulder. As she leaned forward, the larger case fell to the ground, sliding to Khlua's feet. He stood up and wrapped his furry arms around the case. When he tried to pick it up though, he noticed it was unlatched and it fell open, revealing a very large ax.

"I'm sorry." he said, closing and re-latching the case before picking it up and giving it to her.

"Thank you." the girl said, showing no emotion at all, blinking her dull, glassy eyes at him.

"Oh, wow!" Colette excitedly mumbled, "You must be a strong doggy if you can lift up Presea's ax!"

"D-doggy?" Khlua exclaimed, before remembering that he _was_ in fact, a dog.

"Ignore her," Lloyd sighed, "she's a little bit... excited about the invitation to this tournament. I'm Lloyd, she's Colette and this girl here is Presea."

Without realizing it, Khlua did a slight bow before saying, "Hello, my name is Khlua. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

After a short exchange of information and greetings, the three sat down, Presea closest to Khlua, then Lloyd and lastly Colette. Khlua turned back to Lucario. The person – or more accurately, hedgehog – that Lucario was conversing with noticed him.

"Hey," he exclaimed, "what's up?

"Hi," Khlua muttered, "I'm Khlua, a newcomer. You're Sonic, right?"

"That's right!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

Khlua had to keep from sounding rude – as much as Khlua hated that rodent's carefree attitude and jock-like traits, he had to be diplomatic about things.

Lucario turned to face Khlua again, "You seem to know a lot about the people here. Are you sure you haven't been here before?"

Lucario didn't sound sarcastic, so he must be serious.

"No, not really. I just see a lot of the uh... matches."

"Hm. Who are they?" he asked, gesturing to the three newcomers.

"Oh, them? Presea, Lloyd and Colette, in that order."

"I see. That little one with the pink hair... Presea, right? She looks a little out of it."

Remembering what he knew of the game from experience and from the group, Khlua explained,

"Well, first of all, she only looks young. Because of very complicated reasons, her growth was slowed. She's actually twenty-eight."

"Twe-twenty-eight?" Lucario exclaimed. "She only looks thirteen at most!"

"Well, she's twenty-eight. For the same reasons that she stop aging for sixteen years, she had her emotions taken away. She's just now getting used to feeling again."

"Interesting..."

Suddenly, the stage in front of the audience was occupied by a very large glove. Master, of course. He flicked the speaker by his podium to make sure it worked, resulting in three loud booming sounds.

"Greetings, smashers!" he exclaimed. "It's wonderful to have you all back again! I have very good news this year. Not only will we be joined by a large cast of newcomers, we will be hosting some old friends as well! From the Melee tournament, say hello to Mewtwo, Pichu and Roy!"

Three people stepped up to the stage from one of the back rows. Mewtwo was tall and almost catlike in appearance, with light purple skin and a dark purple tail. Pichu was small and mouselike in appearance, with yellow fur and blackened ears. Roy was human and had red hair and mainly loose blue clothing. He had a sheathed sword at his side.

"Now," Master continued, "to introduce the newcomers. First, from the land of Sylvarant, Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel and Presea Combatir!"

The three travelers rose from their seats and stepped up to the stage, taking quick bows. Soon after, they took their seats.

"From Mobius, Shadow and Blaze!"

A black and red hedgehog much like Sonic and a purple cat in white boots and light purple clothing stepped up to the stage. As they stood staring at the crowd, Sonic could be heard muttering a few special words about the hedgehog up on stage.

"From the Sacaen Plains, Pherae and Ositia, Lyndis, Eliwood and Hector, respectively, of course."

A familiar looking swordswoman with green hair and a blue tribal dress on passed by all the chairs, as she was sitting in the back. Murmurs could be heard as she walked up on stage. Obviously, everyone remembered her from the assist trophy in Brawl. Along with her came a swordsman who looked like Roy, except slightly older, and a tall, blue haired man in black decorative armor. After polite, official looking bows, they returned to their seats.

"Also," Master announced, "from the land of Nippon, Amaterasu."

A snow-white wolf with crimson markings covering her body ran from the auditorium entrance to the stage, obviously running late. She made a whining noise, but for some reason, Khlua understood it perfectly well.

"Huff... huff... huff... sorry for being late. Well, it's nice seeing you all. Hope to be friends. Bye."

After her short speech, she jumped off stage and found a cozy spot to lay, which happened to be on top of Presea's huge suitcase.

Khlua couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. As he looked over, Presea seemed to be smiling at the wolf herself. It was very small, and almost unnoticeable, but her eyes seemed to brighten as she rubbed the wolf behind her ears.

"From the country of Hoenn, Zangoose!"

A red and white rabbit like creature rose from its seat in the front to the stage and back again.

"Finally," Master exclaimed, obviously excited to get this over with and go to sleep, "from the Prime world, Khlua."

Excited murmurs erupted across the crowd as Khlua stood up. He only heard bits and pieces, but they all said the same thing.

"That's from the Prime world?"

"It looks too scrawny to save its world."

"Wha– Khlua? He's from the Prime world?"

Even the newcomers seemed to know how impressive that was.

_Wow... they all know the Prime world, but hardly any of the people back home know their worlds actually exist._

He stepped up, but stopped when a hand grabbed him by the ankle. He turned and saw Presea looking up at him with her lifeless eyes.

"Stop shaking," she quietly ordered, "it will help to make a good impression."

He noticed he was shaking. Trembling so hard, in fact, he felt like if it had been anyone else who caught him, he might have fainted. He threw her a quick nod and steadied himself as he walked up the staircase to the stage.

As he faced the crowd, the whispering stopped. He followed everyone else's examples and took a bow. He slowly walked back down and seated himself. As Khlua looked around, he found everyone staring at him.

Everyone's attention was back on Master when he cleared his throat – or whatever giant floating omnipotent hands speak out of – and flicked the speaker again.

"Now, now. Everyone, be calm. Nothing is special about him. Just like last tournament, the dorm room arrangements have been chosen by row. Separate dorms will be there for the males and females."

At that remark, several groans could be heard.

_It's like this is some sort of school. With perverts and everything._

"You won't have to share bedrooms, just bathrooms and the such. You are all dismissed. Except for Lucario and Khlua."

Several taunting phrases could be heard from the rest of the smashers.

As Khlua and Lucario approached, the latter asked, "What's this about, Master?"

The glove replied, "If it isn't already obvious, I based most of Khlua's body off of yours."

It was true. Although Khlua had different coloring, sharper features, no spikes and no black things dangling from the back of his head, he looked much like Lucario.

"What's your point?" Khlua asked.

"Khlua, you don't know any attacks yet, do you? My point is that Lucario might just be able to teach you a move or two. That could help with your "moveset" a lot. That is all. You should train later, it's dark out, after all."

As Khlua walked out, he saw that Master was right. It was very dark. Despite that, Khlua managed to follow Lucario to the dorm that the front row smashers were to use. As he entered the building, the path separated into two. One with a female symbol, the other with a male one. Khlua obviously followed the former, which led to about a dozen doors. One was labeled "Khlua", and he opened the latch to it, walking in.

A king sized bed and lavish wooden flooring awaited his arrival. He sat down on the bed, suddenly feeling the need to go to sleep. He pulled the silk scarlet sheets over his head and curled up tightly.

"As strange as it is... I feel quite welcome here. It's almost like home. Almost."

He turned around to the other side.

"Home. I hardly remember it. It's been an eventful day. Maybe... maybe when I wake up, I'll be back. Either way, I feel... at peace."

Sleepiness overcame him and he closed his eyes, awaiting the new day.

END~

Don't you need a disclaimer for this stuff?

I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story except for Khlua.

I think that sums it up.


	2. No Day Like A Snow Day

Hi everyone, back for more?

* * *

><p>Great news. For those of you that were bored during chapter 1, there will be a little fighting in this one.<p>

Super Smash Bros. Rumble

Chapter 2

No Day Like A Snow Day

As Khlua opened his eye lids, he found himself in a very different room then he fell asleep in. A brown carpeted floor and mundane looking dark green walls surrounded him.

"It was all just a bad dream..." he said aloud, yawning, "I'm not in a weird house full of creepy video game characters."

He pulled his sheets down and looked out the window. It was snowing outside. He couldn't be in that other world – the skies were clear and even the night had been warm last night.

A knock on his bedroom door had snapped him back to reality. He turned and jumped at the knob.

"Who is it -" he started to speak, but stopped when he saw his visitor.

"What's wrong with you?" Lloyd asked him.

"Oh, nothing... I just thought I had finally woken up from this horrible nightmare..."

Lloyd looked back at him, obviously confused. He started to explain why the room looked different from last night.

"I was told today that our rooms are being modified to fit the ones that we had back in our own worlds. Cool, right?"

He looked worried that Khlua's response was a simple stare.

"Well," Lloyd continued, "Master also fixed the weather to be like the current weather in our worlds."

"Yeah. Great." Khlua let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Oh, yeah!" Lloyd exclaimed, "We need help in the kitchen. Some sort of welcoming dinner. Can you cook?"

"Y-yeah," the canine replied, dragging himself back from his despair, "I can cook. I'm pretty good at it too."

"Cool. That makes two people cooking for all the guys and girls in this building. You and... uh... Peach, I think? You and Peach will be getting recipes from the people in the dorm so that you can cook a big dinner. Here, I got one from me written right here..."

Lloyd pulled out a pad with a bunch of illegible scribbles on it. It seemed to be labeled "Melange Gel".

"Thanks." Khlua mumbled, holding the piece of paper in his paws.

"Alright, see ya later."

Lloyd slammed the door shut and Khlua could hear him running off somewhere.

"A dinner huh? With recipes from all the other people? Sounds kinda fun."

He opened the door and began knocking on doors, trying to copy down all the fighters' favorite recipes and finally turned back, heading outside.

When the path branched off to the separate dorm sections, Khlua noticed two more paths, labeled "Lounge" and "Kitchen". He obviously took the latter path. When he came in, he saw a blond woman in a pink dress.

"Oh, I need more pork for this," she muttered, "go get more!"

"Yes, ma'am!" a familiar voice exclaimed before making another sound. Recognizing the sound, Khlua bolted in and grabbed Colette as she was about to fall into a trash can.

"Thanks, Khlua!" she said, beaming up at him.

"Just be more careful, okay?" he told her.

As Colette walked past him to get more pork for the woman, Khlua positioned himself at a nearby stove. Finding no ingredients near him he turned to the woman in the dress.

"Excuse me Peach," he stammered, "do you know where the ingredients are?"

She turned to him, her emotions changing from annoyance to cheerfulness.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but I can't help you with that. Ask that brat – I mean, girl, to help you."

She was obviously referring to Colette. She was trying to hide her dislike from Khlua, but he was quite perceptive, though he chose to ignore it.

"Okay, I'll ask her."

Peach began to work feverishly at her pork stuffed mushrooms. Obviously a recipe from her homeland. She already had two trays of orange and yellow gelatinous spheres next to her.

"What are those?" Khlua asked.

"Oh, those? Those are just Lemon and Orange gels. I got them from the, uh, one girl from before and that creepy – I mean, quiet girl."

She apparently meant Colette and Presea. Khlua was slowly growing to dislike this woman. After all, Colette was just clumsy and kind of dense, and Presea was just quiet. It wasn't even Presea's fault that she was sort of quiet. Peach was just hating on them for their natural traits.

Khlua's thoughts were interrupted when he bolted towards the door to catch a falling Colette.

"Honestly," he said, "you need to watch where you're going."

"Thanks again!" she said, apologizing for not heeding his advice. "I even got you some ingredients to work with!"

She had brought a huge bag full of assorted foods.

"I hope," she mumbled, "that I got everything you needed."

Khlua took a look in the bag as she handed it to him. "You did a good job Colette. That's everything. You better watch Peach though, I'm sure she'll need help." He quietly added to his last statement, "Though whether it's physical or mental, I have no idea."

Colette giggled and walked towards Peach, watching her stuff little balls of pork into red and white spotted mushrooms.

Khlua turned around on his heel and set his stuff down on a counter.

"Let's see... first is Snake's... instant noodles? Honestly?"

He threw a couple of packets of beef ramen into a pot filled with water and turned the stove burner on. He moved onto the next.

"Chili dogs? I don't even need to read who this belongs to."

He started chili in one pot and hot dogs in another.

"Let's work on something a little harder than that. Hm. Watmel berry pie. Lucario's recipe. I'll need flour and water..."

He fumbled through his bag and heard the sound of ceramic hitting steel. He looked up and saw Colette standing over a pot of boiling water, except the water was on the floor, not in the pot.

"I-I'm so sorry Peach, I-I'll fix it! I'll get you more water!"

Colette was running out the door when Zangoose walked straight in. The two hit each others' heads and held them, grunting from the pain.

"I'm so sorry, excuse me!"

"Nah, it's okay girl, just be careful." Zangoose responded in a high pitched, yet rugged voice, covered in a Texan accent.

Zangoose walked over to Peach and asked, "Woo, I smell some watmel berries! Where are they?"

Peach turned, her face red from yelling at Colette so many times, and screamed, "Oh my god! Would you newcomers just leave me alone! Bother someone else for a change! Go talk to that stupid dog over there!" she pointed at Khlua, if it wasn't already obvious.

"Okay, okay," the Pokemon replied, "sheesh, isn't there a place where a girl can find herself a snack?"

Khlua responded by throwing a pink berry at her. "Catch, it's your lunch."

She had no problem catching the berry, which she promptly shoved in her mouth, chewing.

"Hey," she said between bites, "you're about the nicest guy 'round. So tell me, what's her problem?"

"Oh, her?" he asked, gesturing towards the screaming red puff that was supposed to be Peach. "Colette dropped a pot of hot water, so she got real mad. If you didn't come in, she might've just poisoned the poor girl's food to get back at her."

Zangoose chuckled, "Well, that ain't too nice of her. So, you need any help?"

"Yeah," he responded, "could you watch the pots there? When they boil, lower the temperature to 'low'. I'll start working on this pie."

An hour or two passed, and the group finally finished cooking. The only casualties had been a pot with a broken handle and cracked Hyrulian china, each of which were followed by an "I'm sorry". A menagerie of delicacies covered the table.

"Well," Peach said, unable to hold in a sigh, "we just need to move this stuff to the lounge and wait for dinner time to roll around. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you Colette, but I would appreciate it if you want outside and caught frostbite or something."

"Okay!" the angel exclaimed, walking out the door.

Holding crock pots, punch bowls and other assorted serving dishes, the trio went their separate ways. Khlua went outside and helped Colette to build what looked like a snowman.

"Colette, you'll get frostbitten if you don't wear mittens." he said, handing the cozy wool ones he found in his room to her.

"Isn't that what Peach wanted?" she asked, pulling on the mittens.

"Well, she's a psycho. Just put them on, you don't want frostbite."

"But you aren't wearing mittens. Know that I think about it, you aren't wearing anything."

Khlua stopped and blushed at the awkward comment. It was true that he wasn't wearing a coat or pants or anything. It wasn't like when he was human though, was it?

"Yeah, but I have fur to keep me warm." he defended himself, yet unable to stop thinking about what she said.

She smiled at him. "Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot."

_That was more than awkward. That was uber-awkward._

She turned to her blob of snow. "Let's get to work, shall we?"

The silence was broken when Khlua felt a firm tug on his shoulder. As he turned around, he saw Lucario standing there, with a very disappointed look on his face.

The Pokemon scolded him, "Weren't we supposed to get to work on your moveset today?"

Colette turned to look at Lucario and said, "Oh, I'm sorry Luca, I must have distracted him. You can have him for now, but I'll need him later."

"My god," Khlua exclaimed with an astounded look on his face, "I've just been traded!"

As Lucario slowly dragged (literally, dragged) the flailing canine away, Colette got back to work on her snow-thing.

Inside, in the lounge, things were just getting set up for the coming feast.

"Oh," Zelda said, "won't this party be amazing?"

"Just like every other year." Sheik quietly responded.

To suit their needs, Sheik and Zelda were split into two separate people when in the Smash world. It just worked that way.

"Oh, Presea," Zelda called, "the piano should be about here."

The pink haired girl walked in with the piano behind her, flipped sideways to fit in the hall.

"Sure..." she replied, turning to where Zelda was and placed the piano down with a loud banging sound.

"Seriously," Blaze said to the girl, getting up from the couch, "you're like a whole army with those arms of yours!"

"If I wasn't strong, I wouldn't be a very good fighter, would I?"

"I suppose you have a point."

A man dressed in camo came in and went over to the fridge, pulling out a bottle. He sat himself down right on the couch. "That stupid Pokemon took one of the newcomers and went over to the training area. Really, the battles start in a week and they're training already?"

"I assume," Peach said, leaning in her chair, "that you mean Lucario and that dog from Prime world, right?"

A voice interrupted, "He's not a dog. He's a person."

Peach turned to the speaker, who happened to be Presea, and said "Oh? And how would you know about someone so important? It's not like he'd be friends with a creepy girl like yourself. Then again, he seems to be friends with that klutzy freak angel friend of yours, and even Lucario, so I guess a lot is possible."

"Master told me." Presea replied without noticing the insult. "I'm going to go find them."

"Whatever."

Presea left the room, soon followed by Blaze and Sheik.

"Where," Peach asked, "are you going?"

"We're going after her." Sheik replied.

"After all," Blaze added, "it'd be nice to hang with actual friends."

The two continued on, and Peach rolled her head to the side.

"Snake, grab me a bottle, too. I haven't gotten drunk in a while."

He did as told, and the two chugged for a moment or two.

Zelda simply sat in the corner, hoping not to be noticed until the crowds finally showed up for the party.

Presea walked alone but was soon joined by Blaze and Sheik.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"Well," Blaze replied, "to put it simply, we'd rather come with you than stay there.

"I understand." Presea stopped. "That's the training area, right?"

She pointed at a snow covered building with a coliseum like shape.

"That's it." Sheik said.

As the trio walked in, they noticed Amaterasu curled up in a corner.

Blaze walked over to the wolf. "Hey! Ammy, what's up?"

Amaterasu barked back at her, wagging her tail a little.

"Oh really? I didn't think you were into watching guys fight."

Amaterasu yipped back a reply.

"You can understand her?" Sheik asked.

"Yea, can't you? I thought that she was just speaking English this whole time.

They turned their eyes to the fight, and saw that it was rather one-sided.

Khlua had beams of aura attached to his wrists like swords and was stabbing at Lucario rapidly.

Although Lucario dodged every move, he looked as though he wasn't trying. Suddenly, Khlua stopped stabbing and absorbed his blades. He held out his arm and fired a small white blast from it. It stopped a few inches from Lucario and exploded, blinding everyone in the room. Unaware of his advancing enemy, Lucario couldn't dodge the flying kick to his stomach and flew into a nearby post, sliding to the ground. When he regained focus, he found a paw waiting to pull him up.

"You okay?" Khlua asked, "I think I might've kicked to hard."

"No," the Pokemon responded, "that was perfect. It's time for the party anyways."

As Khlua brought the other to his feet, he noticed their audience.

"Hey, you guys. When did you get there?"

"Soon enough to see that awesome combo of yours!" Amaterasu barked at him.

"That was good." Presea said.

"Pretty cool – I'm pretty much scared to death at the prospect of fighting you!" Blaze praised.

"Think you could do that again?" Sheik asked.

"No," Lucario said, "please don't encourage him. That hurt."

Sheik and Lucario chuckled as they headed off on their own.

"Was I really that good?" Khlua asked, unable to hide the redness of his face at the compliments.

"No joke, that was good." Amaterasu replied.

"It is time for the party." Presea told the group.

"You're right, let's go." Blaze replied, leading the rest back to the lounge.

When they got there, the lounge was unrecognizable. There were streamers hung around the room everywhere, and everyone waited in line to get to the wonderful assortment of foods. The group fell in at the back of the line, behind Lucario.

"Hey, Khlua?" Lucario asked, "What kind of food did you make from your world?"

"Oh, nothing much. They're these water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, fried and then put in special sauce."

"That sounds really good. I think I'll try some. You made sure to make that pie, right?"

"Of course I did. I couldn't forget that."

Suddenly, a very wobbly Peach stepped up to the piano with a microphone up to her mouth.

"Everyone..." she said, slurring her words, "does...does someone know how to play piano?"

"Ooh! I do!" Colette yelled from the middle of the line.

"Anyone besides her?"

Silence.

"Fine. Colette...ge—get up here... and play..."

The princess promptly collapsed, being dragged away by a snickering Blaze.

She seemed to be saying, "Oh, the chances you have given me. You'll regret ever messing with me when you wake up..."

Colette walked up to the piano and started playing a jazzy tune. The line's speed hastened and pretty soon, Khlua had grabbed himself some food.

"Well," he said between bites of a slice of watmel pie, "I think things have turned out for the best so far."

"I can't help but agree." laughed Blaze, putting a marker back into her pocket.

"Good god," Sheik said, her eyes popping out at the sight of the marker, "what the hell did you do to that princess?"

"Oh," the cat replied, "not much."

"That better be it, or she'll kill you for whatever you did."

Blaze's eyes widened. "Maybe I should erase some things." She promptly stood up and vanished behind a chair.

Khlua noticed that besides the talking of the crowds, the room was silent. He walked up to Colette to figure out what was wrong.

"Why aren't you playing?"

"Well, I finished the last song I know, and I can't get this dumb machine to give me more music." She gestured to a machine labeled "Music". Khlua picked it up and touched the screen. Afterwards, he typed in a few words and put it back.

"Try this one."

He moved back to his seat and heard a familiar tune fly through the air. A few people quieted down to hear the music that the canine had chosen, but quickly resumed their conversations. A short knight with a mask on walked towards him and looked up, "What is this song?"

"Oh, Meta Knight. It's from Prime world, so I suppose you wouldn't know it."

Lucario followed over. "Yeah, what is it? It has an interesting tune. After all, we could listen to it on our computers back in the dorms. So what is it?"

"Well, it's actually called 'My Soul, Your Beats'. It's a really good song, so I recommended it. Do you like it?"

"It is sweet. But sad, also." A voice behind them said.

"Oh, Presea. Don't scare me like that." Khlua said to the girl.

After the song had ended, Zelda walked up to the piano, ready to make an announcement.

"Attention, everyone. Most of you know that this dorm has a tradition. Every year, two veterans and two newcomers hold an exhibition match. This year, we have put names in two bowls and are about to draw names, so could you please be quiet?"

As everyone fell silent, Zelda dug her hand into the first bowl and drew two pieces of paper, which she read aloud.

"Mario and Link."

The two veterans walked towards the princess, and several cheers could be heard.

"Next, for the newcomers... Khlua and Presea!"

The two snapped their heads back up and looked straight at her. Just about every veteran in the room booed, which was interrupted by voices shouting "Beat their sorry asses!"

The two looked back at Blaze, Sheik, Lucario and Amaterasu.

Khlua smiled and followed Presea up to the princess.

END~

I do not own "My Soul, My Beats". It is an actual song by an actual group. Credits to the group/vocalist "Lia."

I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction besides Khlua, all other characters belong to their respective owners. Thanks,

Okay, I will make an actual battle happen next chapter. I'm working on it, don't rush me.

Yes, I did use special words in this chapter. It is in the T section, isn't it?


	3. Khlua's First Fight

Hello everyone! I'm back with chapter 3 of this story, and there's going to be an actual fight! Yay! Aren't you all so excited? I finished the character development for now, so I have time for a long fight. Anyways, here it is. Also, for those of whom have played further into Tales of Symphonia than I have, I just read Presea's description and have never encountered her in-game. Am I doing a good job of copying her personality? I looked up some quotes of hers and found that I may have been a little bit off.

Chapter 3

Khlua's First Fight

Khlua tried to ignore the butterflies in his stomach as he neared the Arena. Even though Zelda had explained that you can't actually get hurt in a match, he had his doubts. As the doors creaked open, his jaw dropped at the sight of the interior.

Even Presea couldn't hide her surprise at the large room. With four small glowing pads in the middle and a large screen in the back, it was truly a majestic masterpiece.

Link and Mario mounted themselves on two of the pads, and gestured to the other team to do the same. As the two got on, crowds of Smashers entered the room and huddled in a corner opposite the teams. Zelda stepped up to a very complicated looking keypad.

"Okay, I'm sending you in 3...2...1..."

As she clicked the button, the teams disappeared in a blinding white flash. The screen in turn flashed and whirred to life. On display was a scenic view of the whole galaxy. The four fighters stood on a flat platform that seemed to be flying on the power of some sort of crystal. Final Destination.

For Khlua, however, it wasn't too exciting. As he floated on a small machine hurtling through space, he couldn't help but feel dazed for a moment. Suddenly, a voice called out,

"3!"

Khlua snapped himself back to reality and focused on the match.

"2!"

He readied himself for a lunge, bending his knees and waiting.

"1!"

He took in a deep breath and looked ahead at his adversaries.

"GO!"

He leaped towards Mario first, whom he struck with a fierce kick to the stomach, which wasn't hard, considering their size difference.

Presea had her ax with her, and swung it in an upward arc at the Hyrulian, but oddly enough, it left bits of energy in the air, drawing a crescent moon shape.

Khlua looked back just in time to dodge an incoming fireball and counter it with a quick punch. Mario jumped back at him and landed an aerial kick to Khlua's face, which caused the canine to slide back a few feet. He fired a blast from his arm and followed after it. After it had exploded in front of Mario, he grabbed the plumber and threw him backwards. He followed that up with another grab and a throw into the air. He jumped after his helpless opponent and kicked him off the edge, hoping the plumber couldn't come back up. However, he did recover, and threw a handful of fire at his enemy. Khlua couldn't dodge in time, and felt a burn on his back. When he turned around to counter, the plumber had aimed a fully charged F.L.U.D.D. and fired it off.

A wet dog is not a happy dog.

"Alright!" Khlua growled, "The kid's gloves are off! Soulcutter!"

His aura blades seemed to pop out of his wrists, although this time, they were tinged with crimson and had a sinister shape, not unlike lightning bolts. He lunged at his adversary and plunged the blade into his chest. The small plumber flew back offstage. This time though, he fell too far to recover.

Khlua sighed in relief as his blades regained their normal appearance. "Ah. I feel better already."

He felt another burn on his back, and turned around to see Mario there.

"We're a-playin' two stock, if you couldn't tell." the plumber said, grinning. Although he was losing, he seemed to be enjoying himself. Link, on the other hand, was not. Dodging slice after slice of the girl's ax, he could hardly mount a counterattack.

"Mario," he exclaimed, "can we please switch? Please –"

He was cut off by another one of Presea's swings, this one catching the swordsman right in the chest, knocking him back a few feet.

Mario responded by jumping in front of his ally and blocking a boulder that Presea seemed to have fired from the ground when her ax slammed into it.

Khlua took this chance to grab a nearby item – an Assist Trophy. After he picked it up, he held it over his head and watched as the glass casing broke, revealing a new – but temporary – ally.

A girl with purple hair and dirty golden dragon wings appeared. At first, she seemed to just stand there and do nothing. Soon, she picked up a stone dangling from her neck in the form of a necklace. It started glowing, and a quick flash of light blinded the Smashers.

When the light stopped, the girl was no longer there, but instead there was an enormous dragon with scales the same color as her wings. The dragon drew in a deep breath and exhaled flames at Mario and Link. They took massive damage, but didn't seem to be moving anywhere. With a loud shriek, the dragon wrapped itself in its wings and seemed to shrink. When they unfolded, the girl was there again. She quickly nodded at Khlua and flew offstage.

Link and Mario regained their senses and started to battle again.

Khlua was nicked by Link's sword, but that was enough to cause considerable damage. However, he was distracted when he heard the sound of a smash attack connecting with someone and the thud of that very someone hitting the ground. He turned to see his partner on the ground and Mario ready to hit her with a halfway charged home-run bat.

Focusing his eyes on that, he sidestepped a swing and a stab from Link and rolled over to the plumber. At that moment, the bat connected with a target, but not it's intended one. Khlua flew offstage and came back on a revival pad. Taking advantage of his short-term invincibility, he attacked Mario, disarming and dazing the plumber and grabbed the bat. He swung behind him and managed to hit Link with a full charge and knocked the fighter offstage, without any hopes of recovering.

He pulled Presea back to her feet and said, "Be more careful, okay? These guys aren't just playing. They want to win."

"That was stupid."

Khlua looked back at her, shocked. "What do you mean?"

"Jumping in front of that bat. You're on your last stock. If you had not blocked the attack, then I would have lost the stock."

He couldn't help but let his cheeks turn red. "Exactly. So quit fussing and fight."

"I do not understand," she said as she readied her weapon to fend off a very pissed off Link, "but thank you."

Staying silent, Khlua turned his Soulcutter back on and knocked back a rushing plumber. Presea flung another boulder at Link and picked up a white and red ball as it rolled to her feet.

"What is this?" she asked herself.

"A Pokeball," Khlua answered, not taking his eyes off the fight, "throw it at Link!"

She did so, and it hit him square in the temple. As it hit the ground, it opened, releasing a small Pokemon with orange and white fur. It made a giggling sound as it threw itself at Link, enveloping itself in a fiery ball.

"Ah, hell no! Not again –" Link cursed his fate as he was slammed into by the rushing Pokemon. As it caught him, it slowly dragged him offstage, flailing arms and all, and finished him off.

_I knew Victini was powerful, _Khlua thought to himself, _but that was intense._

The stage's lighting suddenly dimmed, and Presea, being the only one on stage who didn't know what was happening, looked around, spotting a shining rainbow ball.

"Break it Presea!" Khlua exclaimed as he grabbed the plumber, who had eagerly jumped to catch the Smash Ball.

Presea did as told, jumping up to swing her ax at the glowing sphere. It didn't break, but it flew downwards, allowing her to make an additional swing, finally breaking the ball. She became immersed in a rainbow aura and her eyes changed to a yellow color.

"What do I do with it?" she asked.

"I don't know," her teammate yelled back, struggling to keep the midget hero from running over to beat the ball out of her, "something amazing, I guess?"

_I think, _she thought to herself, _I know exactly what he means._

The rainbow aura surrounding her dissipated and her eyes regained their blue-gray color. She rushed at her only remaining enemy and knocked him up into the air.

As she followed him up into the air, she yelled the words, "Eternal Damnation!"

She flipped in midair and knocked Mario downward. When they both returned to solid ground, a shockwave rippled through the stage, which started shaking because of her attacks impact. As Mario flew helpless through the air, Presea followed up with an aerial somersault and another flip and finally,a knock down to Earth. Instead of being continually beaten again, Mario flew offstage, winning the match for Khlua and Presea.

When the Smashers reappeared in the Arena, cheering could be heard.

"How convenient," Khlua muttered, "they weren't so supporting of us when we were chosen."

He walked two steps before realizing that something was very wrong.

"Presea? Are you feeling all right?"

The girl looked back up at her friend. Her face was red, and she seemed to be a little disoriented.

"I-I am okay... do not worry." she answered.

"Okay, but only if you insist."

They were soon joined by Lloyd, Colette and the others.

"That was a good match." Lucario said, unable to hide his astonishment.

"Is Presea alright?" Colette asked.

"She says she's fine, but I'm a little worried." Khlua replied.

As the group walked out of the room, Presea collapsed in the snow.

"Presea!" Khlua exclaimed.

Realizing what had happened, Sheik quickly ordered, "Pick her up and follow me. She must have overexerted herself in the last battle."

Khlua did as told and picked the girl up. She felt as hot as a pot of boiling water.

As the group followed Sheik, she led them to a building with a red cross on it.

"This is the infirmary," she explained, "anyone who gets sick or injured is brought here for treatment."

As they entered, Lloyd noticed something that easily would have gone unnoticed.

"Hey," he said, "it's awfully quiet in here. And I don't see any doctors or other staff."

"That's right," Lucario explained, "since we never get any grave wounds and the such, we don't really need doctors or surgeons. The Smashers can do well enough, considering the number of medical books in the dorms."

As they entered a room near the entrance, Colette flipped a light switch, brightening the dark room. Khlua immediately noticed a bed and put Presea down in it.

"Normally, during cases like this," Sheik thought aloud, "the patient will feel better sooner if you put the air conditioner in their room."

Noticing how very hot it was in the room, Blaze asked, "Where is the air conditioner?"

"Oh, over in the room next to this one."

"I'll go get it." Lloyd volunteered.

"Me too." Lucario said.

"Me three." Khlua suggested.

The three walked out of the room and into the next one, noticing a very large machine in the center.

"It looks really heavy..." Lloyd said.

"No problem," said Khlua, "three people should be able to pull this thing over there."

They positioned themselves around the machine and pulled in the direction of the door. Finding their efforts fruitless, they were about to call for help when a hand was extended from behind them and easily pulled the machine towards the door. They turned to thank their helper, but stopped when they saw it was Presea.

"I've lost all confidence as a man..." Lloyd said, sighing.

"Me too." Lucario muttered.

"Me three." Khlua said, holding back tears.

"I swear," Colette said, hiding in the corner of the room, "I've seen that before..."

As the three followed their patient back into the room, they found her back in bed and the machine blowing out air through a yellow tube, straight at her.

"I guess we can leave her alone now." Lucario said, smiling and turning back.

The rest of the group followed suit, besides Khlua, who seated himself next to the girl.

"Honestly," he said, "why didn't you tell me that you didn't feel so good back there? I'm your friend, aren't I?"

Nothing but silence.

"Well," Khlua said, getting up from his seat, "I'll make sure you get better soon. Get to sleep now. You need rest, above all things."

He left the girl alone with her thoughts.

_Friend?_ She asked herself, _Friend...I like that word..._

She slightly smiled and closed her eyes, eager to get to sleep.

END~

I hope you all enjoyed my failure of a fight. It was my first time doing an action scene. Also, I'm sorry that this chapter was shorter than the others. Oh, and if you couldn't tell, the Assist Trophy was Myrrh from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and the "I've lost all confidence as a man" joke was quoted directly from Tales of Symphonia, hence Colette's reaction. I'm working with only a few people to help me with proofreading and trophy/pokeball suggestions, so I would appreciate a few more. To help with the second thing, I mean. Oh, almost forgot: I do not own Myrrh. There, finished, done.


	4. A Step Closer To The Tournament

For those of you who have played Tales of Symphonia and object to the way that I have made Presea in this story, I finally got to Tethe'alla, so I will be able to more accurately portray her in this fanfic. In addition, since I have received no help with the Assist Trophies and Pokeballs so far, I will continue to put in my ideas. However, you may still recommend some to me. But enough about development – let's get to the story!

Super Smash Bros. Rumble

Chapter 4

A Step Closer To The Tournament

As she awoke from her sleep, Presea got up out of bed. It had been three whole days since she had been taken to the infirmary, and she had been recovering quickly. This would probably be the last day that she would be in this place. She turned to see Khlua, slumped over in a chair sitting a yard or two away from her bed. He slowly opened his eyes and picked up his head.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked.

"I'm fine. Now, if you want to recover, you have to lie down."

Their morning conversation was interrupted by a loud "Stop right there!"

A weak feminine voice could be heard as well.

"M-master told me to come here... to help -"

"I don't recognize you... you're not from the last tournament, and you aren't a newcomer!"

"N-no, but Master said..."

Khlua casually got up and walked out of the room, seeing the two people outside the room.

"Could you two keep it down?" "he asked, "There's a patient in here -"

"Master Khlua!" the owner of the feminine voice exclaimed. It was a girl with purple hair and – dragon wings?

_The Assist Trophy from the exhibition match?_

The girl rushed over to Khlua and hid behind him, obviously afraid of a very confused-looking Pitt.

"Uhhh," the angel said, "do you know her?"

"Sort of..." Khlua mumbled.

The angel, thinking that the girl must be harmless if Khlua knows her, wandered off towards the entrance of the building.

"I-I'm sorry, Master Khlua... Master told me to find you... I'm -"

"No need for introductions. What did Master send you here for?"

"Oh, he told me to... to help you with a girl named... Presea. She's... sick, right?"

"Yea, I'll take you to her."

_I don't know what's going on... I'll have to ask the hand about this._

As they entered the room, Presea sat back up, but then slowly lowered herself back to her original position when she saw the new guest.

"Hey, Presea," Khlua said, "This is Myrrh, the Great Dragon of Darkling Woods."

Myrrh blushed at being referred to by her full title.

"Myrrh, this is Presea, the patient Master told you to..." he paused for a second, thinking.

"What," he asked, "did Master tell you to help with?"

"Umm..." Myrrh mumbled, "I... will be treating her in your place... Master Khlua."

"Mm. Okay." the canine replied, walking out the door after telling Myrrh how to treat Presea.

_I'll head out for Master's place and ask him about that girl..._

As he headed for his room to find a map, Khlua noticed a building that hadn't been there when he went out to eat the last night.

_I'll have to ask about that too..._

When he found his map, he made a mental note of where Master's mansion was and set out for it. Within minutes, he stood at a huge pair of stone doors. He grasped the door handle and banged it loudly on the surface of the door.

"Coming!" the melodic sounding voice of the giant hand rang out. Soon, the doors were dragged opened, revealing a giant, gloved hand.

"How have you been, Khlua? Making friends? Is everything to your liking?"

"Er... yes," the canine mumbled back, "everything has been just great. However, I do have a few questions."

"Oh, go on, what is it?"

_Strange, isn't this where the host asks you to come in?_

"Well, the Assist Trophy from the exhibition battle a few days ago... she's here. Also, there's a huge building next to the infirmary, and it wasn't there yesterday."

"Ah," the hand sighed, "that building is to house all the Assist Trophies who have come to stay with us. During this tournament, I have invited the Assist Trophies to come and help us this year. They get free room and board on one condition."

"And that is...?"

"They are to serve the first person who summons them. It's just to help out with daily chores and the such, so that the Smashers may focus on their battles."

A banging noise could be heard from inside the mansion.

Ignoring the noise, Khlua continued, "But why is Myrrh the only one here?"

"Well," the hand answered, despite a small explosion coming from the mansion, "the girl is the only Assist Trophy to have been used in battle so far. Each Assist Trophy will come when the tournament starts, but Myrrh was used in battle just a few days ago."

He stopped for a breath before continuing, "Any more questions?"

Something very expensive sounding broke in the back of the building.

"Yeah – what the hell is happening in there?"

The hand looked worried – or at least as worried as a hand can look – before saying, "I'm, uh, just having family issues. That's all."

He quickly closed the door and a faint clicking sound could be heard. Soon after, muffled yelling could be heard inside the mansion. Without giving it another thought, Khlua turned around and headed for the infirmary, to check on the girls.

When he reached the room, Khlua heard laughter and looked in to see the girls having quite the lively conversation.

"What are you two talking about?"

The two girls stopped talking and turned to face the canine.

"We weren't talking... about you." Presea said, her face colored slightly red.

"N-no, we weren't, truly!" the winged girl exclaimed, her face a deeper color than Presea's.

Khlua asked, with an eyebrow raised, "Then what _were_ you talking about?"

Myrrh's eyes turned to a bookcase, looking for a topic so that she could hide what she was really talking about. "Ummm... "

She found one, and read off the title

"Anatomy Of The..."

She suddenly realized what she was about to say and her face turned far redder than it was before, and she clasped her hands over it.

Khlua's eyes fell upon the same book hers did and silently read the title, before he dropped to the ground, laughing.

"I-it's not funny," the dragon girl exclaimed, "I almost read that name!"

Khlua slowly regained his composure.

"Myrrh," he said, "I don't care what you talk to her about, but make sure she gets better, alright?"

"A-alright, Master Khlua."

"And," he added, "enough with the 'Master' thing, alright? Just 'Khlua'."

"Yes... of course, Master Khlua."

The canine sighed as he exited the room and headed back to the dorm. As soon as he was out of sight, though, the girls started talking again.

"See?" Presea asked, "He is not a bad person. I am sure you will not need to worry."

"Of... of course, Presea. Now, it's time for your medicine..."

As Khlua entered the dorm, he heard talking coming from the lounge. He turned towards the lounge and saw that a lot had changed since the feast. There were a bunch of separate tables scattered throughout the room, and a huge flat-screen television sat in place of the piano. He sat himself down next to some of his friends.

"Hey!" Zangoose exclaimed, "Nice to see ya again! How's Prezzy doin'?

Assuming that she meant Presea, Khlua answered, "Oh, she's fine. I have someone watching her for me."

"While we're on the subject of people doing things for others," Sheik said, "did you hear that Assist Trophies are going to be living with us during this tournament? They're even going to be _serving_ us."

Khlua sighed, "Unfortunately, I already know about that. A bit too much, perhaps."

"Seriously," Lucario muttered, "Master must've taken a page from Peach's book. I understand that it's to help us focus on battling, but I can't help but think that it's wrong."

Khlua nodded, "I agree. We aren't forcing other items to help us. Honestly, I don't see the point of them being items if they're going to work with us."

Suddenly, a R.O.B. slowly worked it's way towards the group.

"Hello," it greeted, "what would you like to eat?"

Khlua couldn't help but sound surprised, "Wh-why is R.O.B. taking our orders?"

Sheik, however, only sounded disappointed.

"You see," she explained, "the actual R.O.B. is a fighter who represents a race of intelligent robots. This," she pointed to the R.O.B. waiter, "is one of his clones. Originally, all the R.O.B.'s except for the fighter died in an explosion. So we cloned him and now the clones – you can tell which is which because the clones are green – are employed as workers here. Now that I think about it, that's a little like the Assist Trophies."

"Orders?" the R.O.B. sounded a little annoyed.

"Just water." Sheik replied, sighing.

"Same here." Lucario said.

"Well..." Khlua mumbled, "what do you have?"

"Everything."

"Uh... okay... then I'll have... an orange soda, a hamburger, french fries, onion rings, two soft tacos with everything and a cinnamon roll."

The R.O.B.'s eyes – or eye lenses – seemed to widen at the large order. Finally, he turned to Zangoose.

"And you, ma'am?"

"Hmmm... how about steak? Biggest one ya have."

"Mmm. Okay. I will get your orders soon."

He turned and rolled away. Soon, a green haired woman came into the lounge, looking for a free seat. Finding one next to Zangoose, she sat down.

"Uh," Zangoose said, "you're Lyndis, right? Aren't ya in another dorm?"

"Yes," the swordswoman replied, "but the lounge in my dorm is full, and Eliwood and Hector are training together, so I have no idea where to go."

"What about that Roy kid?"

Lyndis scoffed, "Considering the fact that he is Eliwood's future son, I don't believe that we would have much in common."

"Future son? Y'mean... he doesn't actually exist yet?"

"Uh... yea. I really don't quite understand it myself, but I think that I'll end up meeting him in back home when this is over. Eventually, I mean."

"So, Lyndis-" Sheik started to say.

"No, please call me Lyn."

"Alright, Lyn. What is it like in your world?"

"It?"

"Just basic life. Anything happening?"

"Well, no. Caelin has been quiet recently, and nothing ever happens in Sacae."

"Mm."

"And you?" the woman asked, "How is life in Hyrule? I hear that you're always quite busy there."

"Yes, quite. Zelda is always working so hard to keep the kingdom peaceful."

"Zelda?"

"The brown haired lady in the corner over there." the warrior said, gesturing towards a corner table.

"I'm confused," Lyn said, "what about you?"

"I am Zelda. Sort of. I'm a part of her."

Lyn's mind was obviously in distress.

"Brain... hurts!" she said, pretending to faint from the confusion.

The group's laughter was interrupted by their R.O.B. waiter, bearing their food. He passed out their food, but Lyn's eyes almost popped out from the sight of Khlua's platter.

"Uh," she mumbled, "are...are you going to eat all of that?"

"Sure. Why?"

His response was a growl from her stomach.

Khlua laughed and handed her a taco, "Honestly, why didn't you say you were hungry?"

Lyn sighed and took a bite from the taco, which dripped sauce and cheese, along with assorted toppings.

"What is this?" she asked, "It tastes so wonderful! But... it's awfully messy."

"Oh, that's a taco. It comes from my world. I'm actually kinda stoked that the R.O.B.'s know how to make them. Or that they even exist."

Zangoose spoke, while chewing on her steak, "He said they had everything. Why don't you try some steak? It's pretty good for noms too."

"Noms?"

"I mean eats. Grub. Foo-dah. Sustenance. Ener-"

"Wait," Khlua interrupted, with a look of horror on his face, "if you know steak, then you must've eaten it in Hoenn, right?"

"Uh... yea?"

"So... cows don't exist in your world... so what in God's name are you eating?"

A silence hung over the group for about half a minute, which was followed by intense laughter. Finally, they had all had their fill and left to tend to their duties and such. Khlua and Lucario went to the training grounds.

"Now, Khlua," the latter said, "You have your Soulcutter and Flashbang techniques, but you still need an additional attack, a recovery move and your Final Smash. Let's work on those."

Khlua pondered over what to use as his three remaining moves.

_Hm. Well, if I had to guess, Flashbang would be my standard special, and Soulcutter would be my down special. My recovery move will be my up special, so let's work on a side special for now. Normally, they attack to the side and have much greater range than a standard melee attack..._

"Well," Khlua said, leaving his thoughts behind, "in Flashbang, I fire a white ball of aura at my opponent. However, because I'm not as talented as you in controlling my aura, it can't go far, so I detonate it after two or three yards, which has the same effect as a Deku Nut. My Soulcutter doesn't require me to fire the aura, so I can keep a steady flow of it running into the blades. Therefore, it has no limit. It simply strengthens my melee attacks."

"Yes," Lucario said, astonished at his student's knowledge, "however, the Soulcutter requires constant concentration, so it slows you down a bit. Perhaps you should meld your aura into something a little easier than a sword. You'll need greater range and perhaps an effect similar to your Flashbang. Then, you can follow up with a Soulcutter combo to deal massive damage."

Khlua's mind wandered, and he suddenly realized something.

"Lucario? If I can meld my aura into different shapes, then why can you only meld yours into an Aura Sphere?"

Lucario didn't know how to handle that question, but he finally answered, "It's because your aura is unique, or at least in comparison to most people. Most auras are like snow – although trained people can shape it, if it is in unstable shapes, it'll break. Yours is like water. It's very flexible and can be shaped into many different things. However, if it leaves its source for too long, it will disperse, hence your Flashbang. It sounds complicated, but when you're experienced enough to see others' auras, you'll understand."

Khlua nodded before returning to thinking of a way to meld his aura into something that could fit his needs.

It hit him.

_ A stungun._

Suddenly, an explosion like sound could be heard. Khlua and Lucario turned to the door and bolted outside, where they saw Master's mansion on _fire._

Khlua watched in horror as many Smashers ran to it, with buckets of water.

"Oh," Lucario sighed, "_he_ must be back."

"What..." Khlua stammered, "what the hell just happened?"

Lucario sighed again before saying, "You'll see when we get there. Come on."

He grasped Khlua by the arm and used Extremespeed. Although it wasn't much in battle, it sure was impressive in real life. Within a few seconds, they had passed all the buildings and wound up in front of the immolated building. Khlua promptly swung open the doors and leaped over a burning patch of carpet.

_Damn, _he thought, _what's happening? It seems like I'm the only one in the dark here..._

After passing through a hallway, he noticed a floating glove spreading liquid on the fire around him, yet the fire came back stronger.

"Uh, Master?" he called, "That's gasoline."

"So?" the hand called back. He kept spreading it, making the fire grow stronger.

_The hell is up with these people?_

"Sir, you should really-"

_Wait... that voice... is it just me, or is it really squeaky? And... the thumb is supposed to be on the other side of a right hand. _

Khlua gasped before realizing, _A_ _left hand!_

The hand started writhing in the fire and yelling, "Oh, it's so warm! Just like a hot tub! Mm."

Khlua gave himself a well deserved face-palm before dodging a flying vase.

"Damn," he said, before slicing a thrown painting in half, "you're Crazy, then. I guess-" he dodged a can of gasoline, "you're name isn't just describing your in-game sprites." He heard a very expensive sounding statue break as it slammed him right in the face. Finally, a right hand floated into the room and turned to Khlua before saying, "Oh. Hi. I see you've discovered... him." He gestured towards the cackling hand in the fire. "I hope," the hand continued, "that you aren't hurt anywhere."

"No," Khlua replied sarcastically, "just three concussions, twelve broken bones and five and a half 'what-the-hell-were-you-thinkings'."

"Heh, heh," the hand replied, "I, uh, just stepped out to get some tea. I suppose this has been a little surprising?"

The canine nodded.

"Well," Khlua said, turning around, "it's late. I'm sleepy. Good bye."

He let out a yawn and slowly stepped over the burning debris and went off towards the dorms.

"Well," Crazy said, removing himself from the fire, "ain't he a character?"

"You're quite right..." Master replied, "Oh, and did you get the new items for the tournament? It's only a few days away, you know."

"Yea, yea. Here they are. This one in particular is special. It's kind of like that 'Smash Ball' I found last year."

Over in the dorms, Khlua had opened the door and was surprised to see a cot laying about a meter away from his bed.

"What's that for-"

Myrrh slowly walked into view, her gold laced, amber robes replaced by purple pajamas covered in cute little bunny rabbits. She rubbed her eyes, as if sleepy.

"What's wrong, Master Khlua?"

"What," Khlua said, "are you doing in my room?"

"Master said that I couldn't sleep in the Assist Trophy building, so I should sleep in your room for tonight. Is... is that okay?"

Khlua sighed, "Sure. But don't snore."

Myrrh's face turned red – in anger or embarrassment, no one will ever know, "I...I do not snore!"

Khlua chuckled as he sat in his bed and pulled up the sheets. Every time he turned around, he saw Myrrh and thought how strange it was to have a sleeping girl just three or so feet away from him.

_Gah! _He thought to himself, _what's wrong with me? Just go to sleep, Khlua!_

END~

So, what did you think? It wasn't _too _bad, was it? It can't have been – you're still reading it! Either way, I'm going to start the First Tournament Round next chapter, 'kay? It's finally started, but what kind of action are you going to see? Who's going to fight? Find out in the next chapter of Smash Bros. Rumble! Must... resist... going back and changing "chapter" to "episode"...

Meh. Done. See ya.


	5. Standing On His Own Two Legs

Are you all excited for the upcoming battle? Sorry it took a while for me to post – I've been playing video games for inspirations as to how the plot should work out, and I have a pretty solid layout for the first adventure arc. As to what that is... it's a secret. Now then, on with the battle! Oh, yeah, I'm doing a quick character switch for the battle. You will not see Khlua's battle through his eyes – you will see them through someone else's. Also, I'll have a little pre-battle thing which you may skip if you want. Now, let's continue before I bore you to death.

Super Smash Bros. Rumble

Chapter 5 – Standing On His On Two Legs

As Charizard stepped out of the training area, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Damn," he said, "it's nice to let loose once in a while."

It had been a whole three hours since his match, and he was getting anxious for the day to come to an end.

A voice behind him squeaked, "Ya know, it's a wonder we won that last battle."

Charizard whirled around before saying, "Oh, it's you. Don't do that again; you just about gave me a heart attack, you jackass turtle."

The dragon found Squirtle staring straight up at him, with a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

"Hey," the turtle whispered, "I'm gonna go raid the dorms – wanna come?"

"Nah, I think I'll go find someplace quiet to sleep or something."

"All right, but you're gonna regret it!"

The two split up, Charizard heading towards the library and Squirtle towards the nearest dorm building. Upon entering the library, the fire Pokemon saw a few people around a table. When he got a closer look, he saw a newcomer playing chess with Mewtwo, and a certain princess was staring, clueless, from the sidelines.

"Oh. Hi Bi-I mean, Peach."

The princess shot a look at him, but quickly turned her attention back to the board, pretending to know what she was looking at.

A telepathic voice seemed to echo throughout the room, "Well, Khlua. You only have your Queen and King left. You can quit anytime, you know."

"Yeah," the newcomer mumbled, "but I think I'll do... this."

He moves his Queen up the board and the psychic Pokemon's eyes widened.

"Checkmate." Khlua said, proudly.

"Curses. I haven't lost a game in years."

Khlua turned red with embarrassment and said, "Well, you beat me four times, so you shouldn't feel all that bad."

Suddenly, a very loud voice exclaimed, "Would Khlua and Mewtwo please report to the Arena? I repeat, please come to the Arena; your match is about to start."

The two smashers got up from their seats and headed out the door. Bumping into them on their way was Blaze.

"Hey," she exclaimed, tapping Khlua on the shoulder, "everyone's excited to see your match, so you'd better make it a good one!"

"Uh, sure. Likewise. By the way, who are you fighting, Blaze?"

"Peach."

As she walked towards a bookshelf, said princess noticed her and obviously began to remember something from a week or so ago.

"Come here, you damn cat," she screeched, taking a frying pan out of her – pockets, I guess? "I'm gonna wring your neck for those marker drawings!"

The cat glanced over and her tail stood straight up.

"Aw, shit!" she exclaimed, running further into the library, soon followed by her pursuer.

Khlua chuckled as he walked out the door. Finding nothing else to do there, Charizard did the same.

_Hm. _the dragon thought to himself, _I can't think of much else to do. Aw, hell. I think I'll just watch this next match._

He followed Khlua and Mewtwo to the Arena, finding a seat in the Spectator's Corner.

"Heh," he thought aloud, "these bastards sure have a lot of fans."

It was true – where normally only a few people watch the first round battles, there were at least twenty people seated in front of the huge screen. The battle was about to start, and there were still people sitting down.

Charizard found a large, white, furry mass seated next to him. It panted loudly and its eyes twinkled.

"I assume," the dragon said to the furry dog thing, "that you won your battle."

"Yeah," Amaterasu replied, "it was easier than you would have thought."

"Cool."

The crowd grew silent as a very large, enthusiastic voice yelled out, "3! 2! 1! Go!"

The stage seemed to be Final Destination, since that was where all the official battles took place. The two fighters seemed to sit in place for a while, perhaps to analyze their opponent. Finally, Mewtwo threw a Shadow Ball at Khlua, who barely blocked it with a shield. It bounced off and flew upward.

Khlua bolted towards his opponent and grabbed him by the arm. A loud shocking noise could be heard, and Mewtwo fell to the ground in pain. His damage had only gone up by three percent, but he seemed to be thoroughly paralyzed. Khlua took this chance to bring out his Soulcutter and hit his opponent directly in the chest. Mewtwo flew back, but recovered in midair and floated back on stage.

He quickly closed the distance between his opponent and himself and with a flick of the wrist, Khlua tripped, helpless on the ground. The Pokemon took this chance to kick his opponent hard in the gut, sending him flying towards the edge of the stage. He followed his prey to continue with a combo, but Khlua recovered and air-dodged the first blow, countering with a swift kick to the back. He shot a Flashbang at the Pokemon and jumped back, hoping to put a little distance between them. However, Mewtwo deftly sidestepped the blast and picked up the first item to appear during the battle – an Assist Trophy. However, when the glass broke and revealed the new fighter, both the summoner and the crowd burst into laughter.

Instead of summoning an all-powerful fighter, a three or so feet high white humanoid creature with blue hornlike protrusions coming out of its head appeared. To add to the harmless appearance, it squeaked out something that sounded like, "Hee-ho!"

However, Khlua was not so amused. In preparation for what he knew was coming, he put up a shield. The creature shouted something that sounded like, "Bufu!" and shot a ball of ice at the newcomer. The ball of ice faded after bouncing off the shield, but just about broke it. Khlua let down his guard and jumped to dodge an ice spike that shot out of the ground. The first spike was soon followed by four more, each getting a little closer to the fleeing canine. Finally, the spikes stopped, and Khlua stood still to the hold his breath. However, the little creature took this chance to throw a "Bufudyne" at Khlua, who couldn't dodge the icy gale that flew towards him.

Not only did his damage jump up to fifty-two percent, he was also frozen in place. The creature gave another "hee-ho!" and vanished into a cloud of icy dust. Normally, a smasher would beat up on a frozen opponent, but Mewtwo noticed the area darken, except for a shining ball in the left corner of the stage. Leaving his adversary to the cold, he leaped up and smashed the ball. It didn't break at first, but two Shadow Balls later, and Mewtwo was surrounded by a rainbow aura.

Just then, Khlua broke from the ice and rushed towards his enemy, hoping that he could knock the ball out of him. However, Mewtwo had different plans.

He absorbed the aura and suddenly, he was covered in some sort of armor. He opened and closed his hands, as if testing the mobility of this new form. He began to charge a Shadow Ball and fired it at the now fleeing newcomer. It had tripled its regular size and moved at a much quicker pace towards its target. Khlua jumped over the ball, but to no avail. The ball followed him around the stage, gaining speed. Finally, it crackled and disappeared.

Khlua took in a deep breath and struggled to get back on his feet. With a flash, a Mewtwo transported from one side of the stage to right in front his opponent. With a swift kick to the shoulder, Khlua flew off stage. It seemed that he wouldn't recover, but when he had just disappeared from the screen, a blue beam curled up to the stage and latched onto the edge. It quickly retracted, and a very grateful Khlua was flung up into the air. He landed shakily, but quickly recovered, picked up a Bob-omb and threw it at his armored adversary, who deflected it with a telekinetic pulse. Khlua caught the deflected explosive and noticed that it had started shaking it's legs and growing red. He rushed towards his opponent, and just as Mewtwo's armor fell off, Khlua threw the bomb as hard as he could, and it made impact.

It had risen Mewtwo's damage to eighty-four percent, but what was more important was that he had been blasted across the stage. He remained on stage, but he was at a disadvantage.

"So you like hot potato, huh?" the Pokemon asked sarcastically.

"Sure," Khlua replied smugly, "now let's see how you handle this!" He picked up a nearby Pokeball and hurled it at Mewtwo. However, to his dismay, his new ally was a flopping Goldeen. Taking advantage of his opponent's bad luck, Mewtwo launched a Shadow Ball at Khlua and ran... backwards?

"What the hell?" Charizard exclaimed back in the audience, "Why did he just ran away?"

His questions were answered when Mewtwo began to glow with a brilliant white light, and blue sparks surrounded him. Khlua took the projectile to the face, but got back up and ran towards his opponent, not realizing that said adversary had just obtained a Starman. Khlua threw a punch at Mewtwo, but it had no effect. The Pokemon grabbed his enemy and flung him away, chasing him down again. Khlua got up, and noticed a strange new item next to him.

_Is that, _he asked himself, _a cell phone strap?_

It was. It was a cell phone strap that seemed to have a plant tied to it. Khlua recognized the plant as mistletoe. Suddenly, he realized that he had seen this in a video game once.

"I hope this does the same thing it does in the games!" he exclaimed, before attaching it to his wrist.

As the invincible psychic neared, Khlua brought out Soulcutter and stabbed Mewtwo directly in the chest. Instead of simply bouncing off of the twinkling aura, the blade shattered the Starman's shield and Mewtwo flew back. Instead of dealing damage equivalent to a strengthened punch, the attack dealt seventy-two more damage, leaving Mewtwo with one-hundred and fifty-six percent.

The strap disappeared, and Mewtwo let out a "What the hell? That was supposed to last much longer!"

Khlua smirked as he said, "A new item. If memory serves, it's called Devil's Fuge. Think of it as an anti-invincibility weapon."

_God, _he thought to himself, _I need to get a life outside of video games...-_

His thought was cut off by a downwards throw by Mewtwo. While Khlua tumbled in midair after bouncing off the ground, Mewtwo's eyes flashed white, and Khlua flew off screen with an explosion.

Mewtwo readied himself as his opponent appeared on a recovery platform. Taking advatage of his moments of invincibility, Khlua picked up another Pokeball, hoping that he would get better than a flopping goldfish. The ball hurtled through the air, and Mewtwo sidestepped it.

He smirked as he said, "You do realize that your chance of pulling off a win are steadily decreasing, right-"

He was cut off by an elegant, humanoid creature, with a flower on top of its head. The Liligant threw itself at Mewtwo, twirling around, surrounded by cherry blossoms. After sustaining a solid hit from the dancer, Mewtwo appeared to be a little dazed – as if he were hit by a sledgehammer. Another rush of flowery might sent Mewtwo to his doom. As he came back on the platform, he waited for Liligant to finish its Petal Dance. Finally, he leaped towards Khlua and landed a good punch to the shoulder, knocking his enemy to the ground, covered in a shadowy aura.

A swift kick to the side sent Khlua farther towards the edge. As Mewtwo neared, the newcomer rolled off the edge, out of sight. Mewtwo walked towards the edge, hoping to finish the match with a quick Meteor Smash, but his adversary had other plans. Khlua threw his arm out, and an aura whip wrapped around Mewtwo. Not only was Mewtwo being dragged across the edge, but he felt the energy drain from his body and into his bonds. Soon he realized that Khlua seemed to be getting slightly stronger as he grew weaker. It was obvious to the crowd as well – this rope thing drained Mewtwo's energy and healed Khlua!

Mewtwo groaned. _I can't take much more of this... it's draining me much faster than expected. I must get out!_

As he struggled, Mewtwo's bonds loosened, until he finally slipped them off and they dissipated. Khlua, who now seemed to be fully healed, jumped back up to the stage and gave Mewtwo a kick to the face, which sent him sprawling backwards. As the Pokemon got up, Khlua grabbed him by the arm and started to swing him around in an almost Mario-esque fashion. Finally, he threw him down at an angle and Mewtwo bounced off the ground.

The Pokemon threw a cloud of Shadow Balls and followed after them. Because there were so many, Khlua dodged the first two, but took the third to the back, which were soon followed by two more. Mewtwo grabbed him and started to electrocute him, almost like how Khlua did earlier on.

"How do you like it?" he exclaimed before throwing Khlua backwards telepathically.

"Geez," Charizard grunted, "Mewtwo's a little bit too excited about this match, isn't he?"

"It's understandable;" Amaterasu replied, "after all, it's been... what, a year and a half since he's fought in the tournament?"

They turned their attention back on the screen, which showed that it didn't look all that good for Khlua. With a hundred percent to forty-three percent, none would be too surprised if the Pokemon pulled a win. Mewtwo had just thrown a white ball with a red exclamation mark on it. As his enemy chased him, Mewtwo's trap had worked; the Pitfall Seed had made a hole in the stage, which Khlua, of course, was trapped in.

He grunted, as he muttered, "Ugh... I... I hate holes!"

Mewtwo chuckled, "Well, after the third one, I'd say you have a strong affinity for falling down them."

"Sh-shut up!"

"Oh," Mewtwo mumbled, picking up an item at his feet, "it's curry."

Mewtwo either knew the Superspicy Curry or really liked spicy food, because he downed it and started breathing hellfire at his enemy. And since Khlua was sort of trapped in the ground, he was building damage fast. A hundred became a hundred and fifty-six, a hundred and fifty-six became a hundred and ninety-seven. Finally, the damage peaked at two hundred and twelve. Khlua leaped out of the ground and grabbed a nearby badge that bore a lightening symbol. The badge attached itself to his chest and stuck. Khlua turned and ran towards his fire-breathing foe.

The second the flames hit the badge, they bounced back and burned Mewtwo. Unfortunately, the flames stopped, but the damage had been built up by an astonishing two percent. As Khlua began to mentally pray for help, it arrived. Mewtwo ran from the reflected flames, and was at the opposite edge of the stage. Only a foot from Khlua was an Assist Trophy.

He looked up and yelled, "Thank you! I swear, I'll never skip church again!" He wasted no time as he grabbed the item and held it over his head. As it broke, Mewtwo put up a shield, ready for any form of attack. At first, nothing happened. Suddenly, a fan started floating a foot high in the air. As it floated, Mewtwo kept staring, waiting for a serious attack. He got it. The fan flew at him, breaking his shield in one blow. Then, all of the other items began to float in the air. A Bob-omb exploded against the Pokemon, and he was knocked back by a Beam Sword. Finally, a Home-Run Bat slammed against him at full speed, knocking him... against the video camera.

The audience started groaning, as if they had just been hurt.

"Ow..."

"That... would hurt."

"Geez. A bit too much, maybe?"

As the picture on the screen slowed, a flash of blue sprang from the bat into the air. As the screen stopped, the audience noticed something.

"Is that a ghost?"

"With... sunglasses?"

The picture fizzed out and the Smashers reappeared in the room. Mewtwo was silent as he approached the exit. Khlua walked towards the exit as well, and was greeted by a girl with pink hair and a blue Pokemon.

"Hey, you two!" Khlua exclaimed, obviously happy to see them, "Did you come to see the match?"

"Sort of," Lucario explained, "it was on our way, so we were happy to come."

"Oh," Khlua said, regaining his composure, "did you two get called to the mansion too?"

"Yes," Presea answered, "Master called us to the mansion. He said that it was important."

"Well," Khlua said, "we might as well go together then. Come on, it's getting dark."

The trio headed out towards the snow capped mansion in the distance. Curious, Charizard began to follow.

"Hey..." Amaterasu said, revealing that she was following the group as well, "are you sure it's okay to follow them? After all... they're on business."

The dragon replied, not even turning to face the wolf, "If you don't want to come along, you don't have to. I'm just curious as to what the old glove's up to."

"All right..." the wolf mumbled, trotting silently through the snow.

Finally, the duo reached the mansion and pressed their ears against the wall, hoping to hear some conversation. They did. Unfortunately.

"All right," the glove's voice echoed, "we finished the teleporter, Khlua. Be aware, it will only work for twenty-four hours, so don't waste time."

"Okay," the newcomer replied, "but I still have a question; won't people get suspicious if they see a walking, talking dog back home?"

Amaterasu whispered to Charizard, "So the people on Prime World aren't dogs?"

Suddenly, all in the mansion were silent.

Breaking the silence was Lucario, who said, "I'll check it out."

_Shit! _The dragon thought to himself. He picked up his companion and flew up to the point that they could barely hear the Aura Pokemon say, "All clear."

As the doors closed, the pair flew back down and pressed themselves up against the mansion again.

"So," Lucario said, "how come you called me and Presea here? The teleporter is only built for one, and can't be used after this for a month. We're not going with him, so why do we need to be here?"

"We need to talk about something... important. After we get Khlua back to Prime World, of course-"

"Why can't he be here? Are you trying to hide something?" Lucario was slowly beginning to lose his naturally calm demeanor.

"Be quiet!" the glove yelled back, with an equal amount of anger. Obviously, there was more to this.

Clicking noises were heard, and a faint purple glow emanated the mansion's interior. As it faded, a sigh of relief was heard.

"All right," the glove began, "now that Khlua is clearing things up back home, let us talk. As you know, Lucario, the Prime World is the main segment of the large quilt of galaxies called, 'The Universe'. Originally, I brought Khlua here to 'patch up' the connections between all worlds. However, a Plan B has been brought up. I believe you are familiar with Operation SaD?"

"SaD?" Lucario exclaimed, jumping back at the name.

"What is 'sad'?" Presea asked.

"SaD..." Lucario explained, "stands for 'Salvation... and Damnation'. It's been brought up before... we can save all the worlds in the universe... if we sever the connections to Prime World while we are strong. It will keep trillions upon trillions of people and creatures alive. That's the Salvation part. The Damnation part... is that Prime World will be trapped in a static void. Nothing will happen, because nothing _can_ happen. The people will live there in all eternity as statues. They can't do anything at all. It is truly-"

"More horrific than death." Presea finished, "A hell in itself. So why," she turned to Master Hand, "did you tell us, of all people, about SaD?"

"Because," the glove responded, "you two know Khlua the best. I need you two to seriously consider this. The sacrifice of billions to save trillions of trillions. That's like sacrificing one to save hundreds of billions. The good outweighs-"

"Like hell it does!" Lucario growled, "I'm not going to condemn a whole world, not even to save all the others! It's wrong... we can't sacrifice anyone to save the rest. Anyone at all."

"I agree." Presea said, rolling her gloved hands into fists to avoid exploding like Lucario, "It is very wrong to hurt others, even for our own benefit. We'll proceed with the first plan."

"I've heard enough," Charizard said, turning away from the doors, "I'm leaving."

"Me too." Amaterasu said, "We should leave."

Just a moment before Lucario stomped out with Presea, Charizard flew off towards the dorms, with Amaterasu clinging onto his back.

_Why would Master ever consider a plan like that?_ the dragon asked himself, _According to him, Prime World is the cause of our existence... why destroy it? Why hurt those that... created our worlds? It doesn't make sense... Damn it all..._

END~

Wow. Didn't see that coming, did you – an actual PLOT! Exciting, right? What will this end with? Will Operation SaD commence, or not? Well, you'll see. In the next epi– I... mean... chapter. Of Rumble. Next chapter, we'll return to Khlua's story – and for future reference, his name is pronounced

"Kuh-loo-uh". Also, I'm helping two other people with fanfics, so don't be too hasty. That's all.


	6. The Curtain Is Drawn

Hello, and welcome to chapter six. For this chapter, I had trouble deciding whether I should make a filler or if I should advance the story a bit more. I tried mixing them, but they didn't agree. I finally decided on a plot chapter – the filler will be chapter seven. Also, a warning to all whom believe that Super Smash Bros should include Nintendo characters only; brace yourselves. In the name of Square's old alliance with Nintendo, I'm bringing in their best character. In my opinion, at least. Be aware, all of you who play FF13 – the character's true name is hinted at. Well, I'll spoil the surprise if I say more, so off we go. Oh, yeah! Bonus points to whoever can spot all the video game/anime references.

Super Smash Bros. Rumble

Chapter 6 – The Curtain Is Drawn...

It had been a week since Khlua had returned from Prime World – he had been given the mission of teaching the world about all these parallel dimensions and other such things. He had visited his family as well, and brought back most of his belongings. The weird thing about visiting home was that he had to keep this canine body on – it was strange to walk into your room and see yourself sleeping there. Fortunately, his real body was being held in some sort of top secret base now, so the awkwardness would never happen again.

Of all of his friends, the first one to greet him had been Colette. She had somehow convinced him to bring her back something from Prime World, so, with lack of anything else, he brought some manga over.

As he poked his breakfast – an bacon omelet – with his fork, the angel sat down. Although he didn't look up, he noticed the aura of someone. It was unfamiliar, so it must have been an Assist Trophy that Colette had summoned.

"Hey," Khlua said, spraying ketchup from a nearby bottle onto his food, "you been having fun?"

"Of course," the angel replied, "but I have a question."

"Shoot."

"No thanks, I'm not a violent person." She was obviously not the brightest bulb in the box. "But my question is about something in this manga-book-thing. It has a really weird term in it that I don't know."

"Hm?" Khlua poked his omelet a few more times, finally cutting a piece off with his fork and stabbing it.

"What's _yaoi_?"

"Maybe when you're older, I'll tell..." he peered up from his food, and the bacon in his mouth fell out rather unprofessionally. He recognized the owner of the new aura.

"Cl-Cl-Cl-"

"Lightning." the unfamiliar woman sitting next to Colette said.

"Y-yeah... Lightning..." Khlua mumbled, his lungs empty from gasping and forgetting to breathe.

"Oh no," Colette teased, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "Otakhlua is at it again."

"Hey, no remarks from the peanut gallery."

"What peanuts?"

Lightning and Khlua sighed at the angel's inability to comprehend metaphors. Khlua was finally able to take in the smaller details around.

Lightning had short, red-pink hair, and steel-gray eyes. Her cold eyes made it hard to believe, but she radiated an intense amount of compassion and confidence. She had on a red muffler and a white blouse-like shirt-thing and a single black shoulder pad with yellow lines covering it.

"Nice to meet you... Khlua?" the woman said, wondering if she got the name right.

"Yeah, Khlua. My parents had a weird taste in names."

"What a coincidence," she mumbled, "I'm not exactly happy with the name my parents gave me. That's why I changed it."

"Oh?" Colette asked, falling out of her personal world where she ponders the meaning of idioms and such, "I didn't know you had your name changed, Lightning. What was it?"

"It's... embarrassing, to say the least. I never tell anyone. Which reminds me..." she turned to Khlua, "you were about to say it a minute ago. How do you know it?"

"Uh..." the canine said, searching for an answer, "let's just say it's a long story, and leave it at that."

"Fair enough." Lightning said, getting up from the table. She left the lounge and headed out into the snow. He hadn't noticed it before, but attached to Lightning's waist was a very mechanized, menacing blade.

After finishing his breakfast, Khlua trekked through the white landscape and finally set his sights on the training area. As he walked in, he caught a glimpse of two familiar fighters sparring.

Mewtwo and Charizard were expertly dodging blast after blast after punch after punch. It seemed to be a tied match, and Khlua couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he hadn't gotten the Assist Trophy during his battle with the psychic.

_Speaking of Assist Trophies, I should probably head over to the Trophy Building and meet my new friend._

It had been a week, but every time Khlua came to the building and checked out Myrrh's apartment, she always told him that "He's out right now, so you should come back tomorrow." Finally, one day, she promised to get "him" to stay put long enough to meet his new "master." Khlua sighed as he reached the door to the building. It had an emblem with a lion on the door handle, which Khlua pulled the door open with. The heavy-duty steel slabs moved, revealing a lavish hall with red carpeting.

_Only the best for Assist Trophies. Right..._

He proceeded up the staircase and ran into a slightly familiar face.

"Hee-hello." the small, white creature greeted. It was the Trophy from the first round's battle.

"Hi."

"I'm Jack Frost. Isn't your name Khlua, ho?"

"Yeah. Nice to meet you, I guess."

"Same hee-here. Sorry about roughin' ya up in my first match – I was a little excited, ho."

"Not too much of a surprise. After all, not many get the chance to come fight here. And what's up with the 'hees' and the 'hos'?"

"I can't hee-help it... all Jack Frosts do that, ho."

"Okay... well, I have to see someone, so I guess this is goodbye, for now."

"All right, ho. But it was nice talking to ya. See ya 'round."

Khlua grabbed the stair's railing and walked past the creature. When he reached the top of the staircase, a large amount of doors was at the top. He looked for the apartment his Trophies were assigned to. Finding it, he opened the door and saw Myrrh holding a pink teddy bear up to the light shining in from the window.

"There," she said to the stuffed animal, "you should be able to move around in this body."

Khlua was surprised when he heard the bear respond with a gruff "Thanks, I guess. I would've preferred something that wasn't that girly, though."

"W-well, that was the only thing I could find with limbs that move. It's better than not having a body, isn't it?"

The bear sighed and...closed it's eyes? – and said, "Yeah... thanks Myrrh, now where's this Khlua? I would appreciate it if he wasn't so late."

Khlua surprised the two with a cough and a smile.

"Uh, hi. I'm right here, you know. Been here for a while, really."

"I-I'm sorry, Master Khlua!" Myrrh exclaimed, "We didn't see you there!"

"Oh," the bear said, hopping out of Myrrh's embrace, "so you're Khlua? What a surprise – the first people I meet are a dragon and a dog."

"Hey!" Khlua retorted, "I'm just as human as... the next human. I'm just momentarily a dog. Besides, you're not one to talk – you're a teddy!"

"I didn't mean to insult you – I just said that it's weird. And I'm not really a teddy bear – I'm actually a ghost. My name is Sissel. Pleased to meet you."

"Oh. Okay, I'm sorry for snapping at you. I guess we're kind of both in the same boat, huh? Stuck in the wrong bodies – that reminds me, how do you move the bear's mouth and eyes? They don't normally make blinking teddies."

"I don't know – this one is kind of special. It also lets me..._possess_ objects without leaving my current object – the bear." as if to demonstrate, the windows flew open and shut a few times.

"Cool. Well, it was nice to finally meet you." Khlua said, leaning over and shaking the pink teddy bear's hand. He turned and left the room behind. Soon enough, he was out in the cold again. He had decided to go back to the training area. It was almost lunchtime, and he needed to work up quite an appetite. As he pulled the sliding doors open, he saw that Mewtwo and Charizard were still sparring, desperately trying to blow the other away. By now, the two were breathing deeply, in need of oxygen.

"Okay, you bastard," Charizard said, "I think it's about time we got some water."

"I agree. Give me a second." the telekinetic turned towards Khlua, and warned, "Duck."

"Goose." Khlua said, as he dodged two water bottles that flew into the room. Mewtwo caught them and threw one to his opponent. The two Pokemon quickly finished the water and made their way towards the bench, where Khlua was now sitting.

"Hey," Charizard said, "I saw your match against Mewtwo – that was pretty badass. I still can't beat him, even with a Final Smash."  
>"Heh. Well, the only reason I pulled it off was because of that Assist Trophy at the end. It was all luck."<p>

"Don't say that," Mewtwo muttered, "it makes it sound like you underestimate yourself – I have a feeling that, even if we had no items during the match, you would have won. It was just fun for me to be able to battle again, without having to restrain myself, to be able to just let loose. I missed that when I was back in Kanto."

"Uh, okay."

There was an unsettling silence in the room, until Charizard finally spoke up.

"You know what? I've had enough of resting – let's get back to the fight so I can kick your sorry ass, Mewtwo."

"Oh? Will you?" Mewtwo said with a smile, "I'd like to see you try."

The two went back to fighting in the middle of the room. It was an intense match – every Shadow Ball was dodged, every Rock Smash countered. Finally, the two were locked in a stalemate of a grab, neither letting up for fear of losing their chance at the advantage. Their hands were clasped against the others, held together between their faces, which were grim with determination. Suddenly, a window near them shattered, and an arrow flew right between the two, piercing the ground at Khlua's feet. Taking advantage of his opponent's surprise, Mewtwo threw Charizard to the ground and blasted him with a couple of Shadow Balls, showing that he had won.

"Damn you, Link!" Charizard yelled after getting up, "I will hunt you down and send you straight to hell!"

Khlua dug the arrow out of the ground and examined it. Finally, he spoke.

"I don't think that this is a Hyrulian arrow, Charizard."

"What? But... none of the Assist Trophies use arrows! It has to be either Link or Toon!"

Mewtwo took the arrow from Khlua and found the same result.

"I'm afraid he's right – this is too primitive, even for Hyrule. The arrowhead is part of the arrow – this is just a gratified stick with a sharp end. Link and Toon Link use arrows with steel arrowheads."

Khlua quickly snatched the arrow back and began to look frantically for something on it.

"What, may I ask," Mewtwo questioned, "are you looking for?"

"I...don't know. A clue, maybe?"

As he pressed a notch on the side of the projectile, a paper was – printed, would be the best word to describe it – out of the side. Khlua ripped it off of the arrow and began to read it.

"Yeah," Charizard muttered, "primitive, my big, scaly ass."

Khlua's face was both confused and surprised – the words written on it seemed to be a bunch of nonsense, but they also gave him the impression that this was hiding something. The last line was clear, but confused him the most.

_I know about SaD. If you come with us, we can show you a better way. We can save everyone, we can make everyone happy. It will come at a very small cost, too. After all, they were going to hurt you. They were going to hurt everyone. We just need you._

_Meet me, on the roof, at twilight. We'll discuss it there._

"Mm..."

Mewtwo quickly brought the note to his hands with his psychic powers.

"What's this?" he teased, "A confession of love? It sounds like it could be..."

"Sh-shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. I'll just... bring it up with Master, later. I'm sure it's nothing."

Khlua silently walked out of the room, note in hand.

"What was it about?" Charizard asked, hoping to get some good gossip of sorts.

"Oh, just someone speaking of sadness, and hurt. Probably a love letter of sorts."

The psychic quickly teleported away, and left the dragon to his own devices.

_Sadness? Sad? Hurt? Betrayal...?_

He suddenly realized what it meant, and he felt his stomach lurch, and his heart felt heavy.

_SaD? The plan? A plot... to tell Khlua? No. It can't be it... If he finds out..._

Khlua bit into his taco, enjoying the burn of jalapeño in his mouth. It was warm, and so refreshing after a walk in the snow.

"Hm." Colette said, studying the letter laid out in front of her, "It sounds like someone wants to see you."

"That's what I thought. But I don't know if the person is hostile or just a little bit mentally unstable."

"Well," Lightning said with a sigh, "considering the means that this person sent it to you, it could easily be either. Just in case, you should keep your guard up, maybe bring some sort of 'insurance' in case we're right."

"I have an idea!" Colette exclaimed, with a happy expression, "Lightning, you could be, like, Khlua's bodyguard!"

At first, the other two at the table reacted with surprise, but they began to think it over.

"You know, she might be right."

"I see. But I'm not going to guard you for free."

"What are you suggesting?"

"How about you tell me where you heard my real name? If you have some sort of magical information store, or something like that, then there are a few things that I would like to know."

"Sure. That sounds fair enough to me. It's a long story though, so bring popcorn."

The group shared a few more ideas, and a few jokes. Even Lightning seemed to be having a good time.

"Well," Khlua said, getting up, "I think I'll go take a nap. See you at twilight."

He left the lounge and turned to the dorms, and turned the knob to his room. Surprisingly, it was jammed.

"What-" he began to pull and push the door, twisting the knob frantically to get it open. He heard footsteps in his room, which began to move at a hurried pace. Finally, Khlua threw his shoulder against the door, and the door swung open, revealing a messy room.

Manga was spread across the floor, drawers were open, and a window was letting the snow come inside.

"What...what is this...? Why?"

This may not seem to bad to anyone that this hasn't happened to. Khlua had felt safe here, like it was home. However, someone had been in here, looking for something. This place wasn't safe anymore – it was like living outside, in the territory of an enemy. Not safe. Not secure. Frightening. Scary. Someone was in _his _home. Home. Safe.

As hard as it was for him, Khlua calmly picked up the manga, closed the window and fixed the drawers. Something on the floor surprised him. It was a wispy white hair, like the hair of an old person. It probably belonged to the invader. After Khlua had counted everything up, he wasn't missing anything. All his video games, manga, and snacks were safe. However, he had found one item damaged. It was a picture in a frame, of a girl who was a few years older than himself. She had on a pink sweater and blue jeans. She was lying on a beige sofa, smiling while moving her long, brown hair out of her deep azure eyes. Khlua couldn't help but smile at the memories.

_I hope that everyone in Prime World is okay..._

After locking his window, Khlua lied down in bed and pulled the sheets over his head, waiting for midnight to come.

Finally, Khlua pulled himself out of bed as he saw the clock next to his bed. Both hands were directly on twelve. Midnight. As he got up, he heard knocking on the door.

"Khlua," Lightning whispered from behind the door, "it's time."

He opened the door and nodded towards the woman. They quickly made their way out of the dorms building. Lightning somehow leaped silently from the snow-covered ground to the roof. She pulled up Khlua and got him securely to the roof.

"You should probably hide somewhere." Khlua advised, "The person might run if they see a bodyguard as scary as you."

"Damn straight." Lightning replied, as she jumped just as silently to the ground. Soon, another person had shown them-self. The hooded entity had an unfamiliar aura, and had a quiver hooked to their back.

"Greetings." the person said, in a voice that could belong to a child or adult; a woman or a man.

"Hello. What is this about?"

"Did you not read the letter? It's about SaD."

"I don't know what SaD is. Could you explain it to me?"

The person laughed, "Oh, Khlua. It's so important, and they have told you nothing. Almost everyone here knows about it, yet the person it affects most is out of the loop."

"Hey, we have a loop, yes, but I'm the big... swirly thing. I hear everything. You must be mistaken."

"I'm afraid that I'm not. This plan is big. I can kind of understand why they wouldn't tell you that-"

Their conversation was interrupted by a chain of flame, swirling around the new person, illuminating their green hooded robe. Only "they" was actually a "she," as Khlua picked up.

_Oh, wow. I'm turning into a pervert. This place is getting to me._

Khlua whirled around to see Charizard and Amaterasu combining their powers – Charizard blew a steady stream of flame, which Amaterasu carried to the mysterious girl via her Inferno ability. To aid them came Master Hand, Lucario and Presea. Presea and Lucario jumped off of the adjacent roof and surrounded the intruder. After it was obvious that she was beaten, the chain of fire tightened around her and froze into ice.

"Fine." She said, "Do what you wish. I will not be the end, though."

Master quickly picked her up and flew towards the mansion.

"Are you okay?" Presea asked Khlua.

"Y-yea. What was that, though?"

"Did she tell you anything? Anything important?" Lucario asked.

"N-no." Khlua lied. They probably didn't know about SaD... whatever it was.

"Good." Lucario said. "Now go to bed. Master will get her in a proper holding cell until we determine who she is."

_What is this about? Who is she? What's SaD? Maybe... I'll ask her._

END~

Yay! More story! It was nice to see that someone reviewed my story, by the way. I always feel inspired when I get feedback of any sort. Anyways, the filler will be next episode. Do you want a hint? Of course you do! **Remember; this is December right now.** Bye, see ya next chapter.


	7. Dread and Joy: Merry Xmas, Lucario!

I forgot my disclaimer for the last chapter: I do not own Lightning, Jack Frost, Sissel or the "mysterious hooded girl" that shall be named in this chapter. I only own Khlua. So, after a lot of information gathering and consideration, I proudly present the filler chapter. I know it's a little late for Winter Cheer, but I'm keeping my story on a pace a little behind real life. As it is February now, expect a V-Day chapter eventually. I'll try not to make it too cheery though – that could ruin the story. Anyways, time to get on with it. Also, a tip for further chapters: I'll develop each character a little with each holiday. This one will focus on everyone's favorite mopey Aura Pokemon. Oh, and one more thing – this will be incredibly long. As an apology for taking so long. However, most of it is dialogue, and crappy talk at best. Maybe I'm being too critical...

Chapter 7 – Dread and Joy – Merry Christmas, Lucario!

Khlua awoke to the sound of knocks on his door. He pulled himself out of bed and opened the door. There was Colette, in quite the cheery mood.

"What's so special, Colette?"

"Khlua! Don't tell me you forgot what today is! Master said that it's a very special holiday in Prime World right about now."

He quickly went through his memory. What could the angel be so excited about?

"Oh!" he exclaimed with a face-palm, "December twenty-fifth – it's Christmas!"

Colette sighed, as if this was supposed to be obvious without a calendar, "Yeah, and you better have gotten everyone gifts, okay?"

"E-everyone? As in... all forty, fifty-something of the fighters?"

"No," she said with a laugh, "just your friends, silly! Us!"

"Oh." Khlua sighed in relief. It was good that he had just a few friends. That made things a lot easier.

"I'll be expecting more thingies to read, okay?" Colette asked, snapping Khlua back to reality.

"A-all right..."

"'Kay. Bye!"

The angel quickly ran from the hall, probably to play outside. Again.

"I hope she doesn't get frostbite."

Khlua sat in bed for a while, putting together his schedule and comparing it to the note he found hanging on his door. Apparently, there was going to be a big dinner at midnight, and presents were to be exchanged at one in the morning. Somewhere between those times, Khlua planned to sneak into Master's Mansion and interrogate the girl from two days ago. Somewhere before the times, he should wrap up gifts for his friends. Until then, he was free. Then, a thought occurred to him. If there was to be another big feast, then Master would want all the available cooks. Unfortunately for him, Khlua had other plans.

As he stepped into the snow, he heard a voice calling out to him.

"Khlua! Master needs you to help with the cooking!"

_Ugh... Peach. If she finds me, she'll enlist my help right away... I have to get away!_

Without thinking, he run off in the opposite direction, coming straight to the training area.

"Maybe... she... won't... find me here..." After running so fast, Khlua had to breathe deeply after every other word.

He slid the doors open and sat himself down on the bench. Just then, he heard conversation coming from behind one of the posts. He got up and pressed himself behind it, eager to hear something.

"What do you think I should get him?" Presea asked.

"Well," Amaterasu replied, "you should always give people that are important to you something special, that only you can give. Give him something that uses your skills, or something that defines you."

"What are you going to give him?"

"Aw, probably something I can make with my Celestial Brush."

"Ammy, you are so... wise."

"Thank you. But remember, you have to give everyone else gifts too. Don't spend your time on his gift alone."

"Okay. Thank you, for your advice."

Suddenly, a voice behind Khlua whispered, "You know, it isn't very honorable to listen to girls' conversations."

Khlua jumped back, yelling in surprise and hitting his head on the post.

"Ow... Lucario, what was that about? You almost gave me a heart attack."

The Pokemon couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Really though, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I originally ran from Peach so I wouldn't waste all day in a kitchen again."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse."

"Is someone there?" Presea asked, this time, coming from right next to the two.

"Did you hear anything?" Amaterasu asked, stifling a growl.

"N-nothing." the two guys said, in unison.

"Good. Let's go, Presea. We have to get everyone's presents ready."

"All right."

The two girls left, leaving the two alone in the dark room.

"So," Khlua said, breaking a minute-long silence, "what type of gifts are you going to be giving?"

"Gifts?"

"Yeah. Christmas time, presents, food, ho, ho, ho... you know?"

"Oh. A... human celebration." The way the Pokemon said "human" worried Khlua.

"Lucario, is there something wrong?"

"No... it's nothing. I'll get everyone gifts."

"Lucario, I'm serious. Is. There. Something. Wrong?"

"No. Like I said-"

"I don't believe you. There's something wrong, and I know-"

"Shut up!" Lucario's sudden outburst made Khlua jump back a little bit. That wasn't normal.

"It's not like you know anything!" Lucario exclaimed, leaving his friend alone in the training area.

"Lucario... what's wrong...? I'm so confused. Why can't you tell me? We're friends... aren't we?"

After Khlua mentally gathered himself, he walked out of the room, leaving the dark atmosphere for a whiter world. The weather was calmer today – instead of snow, he could easily see the sun, no clouds to obstruct its shine. It kind of hurt Khlua's eyes – staying in a light-less room for ten minutes could do that. He watched the younger Smashers playing in the snow. It was kind of nostalgic. Popo and Ness were throwing snowballs, Nana was making a snowman, and Lucas was hiding in a snow fort, probably praying not to get caught in the crossfire. Suddenly, a stray snowball pelted Khlua in the face. Instead of breaking, though, it stayed there, for a comically appealing appearance.

Ness and Popo were on the ground, laughing.

Wiping the snow from his face, Khlua took a large amount of snow into his palms and formed them into small spheres. He hurled them at the two, who stopped laughing.

"Ha." Khlua said, grinning, "He who laughs last, laughs best."

He quickly dodged more balls of icy punishment. The two were _not happy_.

"Hey!" Ness whined, "That wasn't nice!"

"Yeah!" Popo exclaimed, "We'll get you for that!"

"Honestly, you two," Nana said with a sigh, "you guys started it – he has every right to finish it."

That didn't stop the two from throwing both snow and insults at the fighter. Without a better choice, Khlua threw an aura whip at one of the balls and swung it into the other ones, creating quite the large snowball. He let his aura go with it, and it separated near his opponents, creating hundreds of little pieces of snow shrapnel.

After being slammed into by the flurry of snow bullets, the two kids stood there, mouths agape.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Ness exclaimed.

"Teach us how to do that!" the blue Eskimo pleaded.

Khlua, knowing better, decided not to.

"Nah, that's too hard for you," he explained, "but, I can play with you guys for a bit, if you don't mind."

"That'd be awesome!"

And so, a long Snowball Fight began. Dodging and deflecting every ball thrown by two kids was hard enough. Nana, and even Lucas decided to try. Occasionally, a snowball would get a little too close for comfort, but Khlua somehow managed to survive without major injury.

"Okay, that's enough – I have to go, guys."

"Aw..." the disappointed kids said together.

"Maybe I'll play again tomorrow?"

"You'd better!" Ness said in a threatening tone.

"All right. Bye. And Merry Christmas!"

As Khlua stopped by the dorm, he heard an argument going on.

"Like I care! I'm not going to help with this stupid holiday!"

"But... I just need you to tell me where he went... we need all the help we can get."

"Yeah. Right. He probably ran off because of this overbearing holiday! Honestly, who cares about a damn day about giving things? It's just another day. That's all!"

Khlua saw Lucario and Peach were the owners of the two voices. Honestly, Khlua couldn't help but feel sorry for the princess. Being yelled at was one thing. Being yelled at by Lucario was another.

"Well! What has you so pissed? Why are you being such a Scrooge? People are supposed to be having fun today!"

"Tch. Who cares? I'm leaving."

Now Khlua was curious. Lucario was genuinely pissed. Normally, he's just a little rough. But today was special.

_Just another day? No way. There must be something. Maybe...maybe I'll look into this._

What could be making his friend so mad? Khlua's first destination in his quest for information was the library.

As he skimmed through the books, he found one that might tell him what he needed to know.

_Holidays Of Pokearth._

_Pokearth, huh? How creative._

He flipped through to the page about Christmas.

"Christmas is celebrated in many ways on Pokearth. In Kanto, the families enjoy fried Pidgey and gingerbread men. That's somewhat... creepy. In Hoenn, stores offer their items at an eighty percent discount and humans buy gifts for one another. In Johto, the holiday is not celebrated at all. In Sinnoh... I think Lucario is from Sinnoh... in Sinnoh, trainers hunt for Pokemon all day and night, receiving any tools that they may need for free. That doesn't sound too bad..."

He put the book back, sighing.

"Well, that was a dead end." Khlua turned around and headed towards the dorms. When he got there, he quietly debated what he was going to do.

"Hm. Anything I find in his room could help me to find the reason he's so bitter. But... I don't know if I should. I'd feel kind of bad about it."

Finally, the good seemed to outweigh the bad, and Khlua entered the unlocked abode of Lucario. Inside was the original room setting: lavish flooring, beautiful bed, red everything...

Khlua looked around. The walls were bare. There was nothing anywhere. No pictures, no sign that Lucario could have any buried reason for despising the day. Soon, Khlua felt the need to sit down. He fell down on the bed, and felt something hit his foot.

"What's this?"

He pulled a book out from under the bed. He opened it up, and was surprised to see drawings. The page he flipped to had a picture of two Riolu and two Lucario, who seemed to be having a nice meal. The family, if that was what it was, seemed to be happy doing what they were doing. A smile lit up each of their faces, and it was contagious. Khlua couldn't help but smile at the little drawing. They were so happy. He couldn't help but compare it to-

A sudden turning of the doorknob surprised Khlua. Dropping the book, Khlua dove under the bed just in time to not be seen by Lucario. Khlua saw the Pokemon's feet walk from the door to the bed. He stopped, and began to talk.

"What's this doing here? Hm...how nostalgic. That reminds me... today marks the tenth year that... oh, who am I kidding? It doesn't matter anymore."

The Pokemon carelessly threw the book to the floor and turned away.

"It's not like..."

Pure sadness and pain colored his voice. He left the room and Khlua behind, shutting the door. When Khlua felt that it was safe, he got out from under the bed and left to his own room. It was three in the afternoon already. If he planned on sneaking into the mansion, he would have to hurry up with the presents.

And so he did. After scrounging up gifts, finding spare boxes and wrapping them all up, he finally labeled them and left, taking only thirty or so minutes.

Khlua turned and walked towards the Assist Trophy building. Opening the door, Khlua shivered a bit and patted a little snow off of his arms. On the staircase, he saw two familiar Trophies talking to each other.

"So that's what this is all about, eh? The fighters were all excited, so I thought something was up."

"Yep! I think it's great...it's just...too bad we don't get to go to the party."

"We could set our own party. We don't need the fighters permission to have fun, do we? We could just invite all of our friends and have a good time. You'll see...you know, I never caught your name. What was it?"

"Oh," Khlua said, now next to Lightning and Myrrh, "her name's Myrrh."

Myrrh jumped back a little and exclaimed, "Master Khlua! When did you get here?"

Chuckling, he replied, "long enough to hear your plans. That sounds fun, actually – you should do it."

"Oh?" Lightning asked, hiding the faintest of smiles, "fun, huh? See ya around."

The soldier girl left, going downstairs and out the door.

"So. A party? For Assist Trophies?"

"Y-yes. Why...?"

"Oh. Nothing. Just interesting-sounding. Oh, and give my regards to the great Sissy-bear. Good luck."

Following Lightning's example, he left the red carpets behind for icy ground. He sat down on a nearby bench, wondering what to do to pass the time. He gazed over to his left, seeing something that he hadn't noticed there before. There was a fountain, spraying water that was now frozen in midair. It was like something in a painting, or something in a movie. The water was like glass, like a perfect sculpture, reflecting the sunlight perfectly as well.

_How perfectly perfect._

He was cruelly torn back to reality as he heard more search-party yells for him.

_Aw, come on! Not again!_

He bolted into the nearest building. The infirmary.

It was quiet in the building, but Khlua could sense the auras of many in the walls.

_I guess Lucario's skill is rubbing off on me..._

As he passed through the halls, he bumped into a familiar figure.

"Oh," he said indifferently, "sorry, Mario-"

"No, not Mario." the man who was obviously the plumber replied.

It _was_ Mario. Sort of. Instead of his red shirt and hat, and his overalls, Mario was wearing a lab coat and one of those weird doctor hats you see in cartoons.

"Er...Doctor Mario?"

"Yes. There is a difference, you know. Just because we have the same last name and look exactly alike does not mean that I am him, or that he is me."

"Um, okay. Then who are you and who is he?"

"I'm actually not related to Mario. Even ask. We just look alike. So many times, I hear people asking me for mushrooms and tales of saving Princesses, but I'm just-"

Stopping the good Doctor from an obvious rambling spree, Khlua interjected, "Okay, I get it. What are you doing here, though? I didn't see you on the fighting roster."

"Ah, yes. Well, you see, since the tournament seven or eight years ago, the first Melee tournament, Master decided that I am better suited to being a doctor. So, I was taken off the roster and I am called every time that the infirmary gets full of cases."

"Like...?"

"Broken legs, femurs, arms, fingers, necks, noses, you name it. I also do disease, but most of the time, I deal with bones. The reason is obvious. Like, one time, I-"

"Yea, I get it. Bye, Doc."

"And good day to you as well."

Eager for a place to hide, Khlua ducked into a nearby room. By chance, it belonged to someone he happened to know.

"Oh, hi Presea."

"Greetings, I suppose."

"Wait, why are you here? You didn't break something, did you? You look fine."

"Thanks." she said with a rare smile, "I am actually just here to get blood drawn."

"Why?" Khlua asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Oh... it's something I don't like to talk about. Back in Tethe'alla...I was part of an experiment, I guess you could call it."

"If you don't like talking about it, you don't have to. I'm fine with that."

"No...I want to tell you. After all, friends...friends tell each other things about each other, right? Friend?"

"Of course." Khlua smiled a little at her behavior. It wasn't weird, just not normal to see Presea act like that.

"Well...the experiment involved growing crystals inside of a person's body. The scientists tried to find a suitable host...one that could withstand the strain on the body that the crystals would make. The first person that could hold it that they found..."

"Was you?"

"Right. They inserted some sort of solution into me, and waited for the crystals to grow, feeding off of my energy. After all, I was just a girl that lived in the boondocks. No one cared. It paid better than being a lumberjack, too. Just enough Gald to support the family. However, the experiment had side effects, too. In sixteen years, I did not age a day. Trapped in the body of a twelve year old. It took away my feelings too. I couldn't feel happy, or sad. I did not notice things that my brain did not think were important. Like...my father..."

Presea stopped to wipe the barely visible tears from her eyes.

"You don't have to continue." Khlua said, "You can stop there."

"I know...but...I want to tell you."

"It's okay. Save it for another day."

"All right...Khlua."

As Khlua turned to leave, Presea grabbed his arm.

"One more thing...a question. What...what kind of things do you like?"

"What?"

"What kind of things do you want? For Christmas?"

"Any way to make it less obvious? Oh well. I guess...anything from the heart. Something meaningful. Homemade."

"Like cookies?"

"Like cookies."

"Like pudding?"

"Yes, like pudding too."

"Like-"

"Let's assume that all food is homemade. 'Kay?"

"Okay."

The two's moment was interrupted by Doc coming in with a machine with a few syringes mounted on it. Taking a syringe off of it, he beckoned to Khlua to leave. He did so. Noticing a clock, he had a sudden realization.

_It's five-o-clock and I'm no closer to my goal then I was two hours ago!_

Then, he noticed Lucario talking to Zangoose over by the fountain. Unable to keep his curiousity bridled, he hid behind a snowbank and listened to them.

"Luca, everyone's worried about you. You just seem so depressed today, and it's making them feel kinda down. What's wrong?"

"I don't like talking about it. Leave me alone, already, would ya?"

"No way. Now, I might not seem like the brightest bulb in the box, and ya know what? I'm not. I'll admit that much. However, even I can tell that ya aren't the happiest of all today. Now, ya can tell me, or I can get it out of ya some other way. I will not let my fellow 'Mon be all down in the dumps, on Christmas, of all days! So tell me so I can help ya. Please. Lucario."

"I'm sorry. I just can't. It's just...they...they're all to blame."

"Who's 'they'?"

"I can't tell you! Now leave me the hell alone!"

"All right. Fine. If you ain't comfy telling me about this yet, then I'm okay with that. Just...stop moping. Be happy. At least feign it for everyone else. They hurt when you hurt."

With that last comment, Zangoose turned herself around at plodded off.

Keeping his back to the eavesdropper, Lucario began to talk.

"You know, Khlua, what I said in the training area applies to _all_ conversations."

"Oh," Khlua said, popping out of the snow, "hi Lucario! I, uh, was just leaving."

"Yeah. Right."

Staying true to those words, Khlua quickly left.

_They? Them? Who? Who are 'they'?_

With lack of a life or something else to waste time with, Khlua headed towards the training area again. Maybe this time, he'd actually practice. As he walked in, he saw Colette, of all people, fighting against a training mannequin.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in fighting, Colette?"

"Oh, Khlua! Well, I kind of lost my first round match against Zelda and Sheik, so I decided to train a little more. After all, I don't want to end up becoming a burden here. I have to pull my load too, or something like that."

"How responsible."

"Thanks. So, wanna train with me?"

"Sure. It'll give me some insight on your techs. I was looking for a way to kill some time anyways."

"Can you kill time?"

"Never mind, let's just fight."

"Okay."

On the count of three, the fighters went at it. Colette threw a chakram – a bladed steel frisbee, for those that don't know – at Khlua, who dodged it.

"You should work on your aim!"

He regretted not paying attention, because the chakram circled back and nicked him. Not enough to pierce skin, just enough to sting.

"Aren't those things a little dangerous?"

"A little. Sorry, Khlua."

Taking advantage of her apologizing, Khlua launched a Flashbang at her, which blew up directly in front of her. He followed that up with a Soulcutter attack, which she herself barely dodged. All of a sudden, a squeaky hammer fell from a bit above Colette and she caught it, throwing it at Khlua. Unfortunately, the blunt toy hit him directly in the face with a "squeak!"

"Hehe," Colette giggled, "Pow Hammer to the face..."

Unhappy, Khlua threw an aura whip at her, which grabbed her arm. He wrenched her forward and punched her square in the gut.

"Ow...that hurt!"

With that, she spawned another object from the sky. Instead of a Pow Hammer, it was a Para Ball – a glorified beach ball. She hurled it at Khlua, and when it made contact, he felt a violent electrical shock course through his arm.

"Hey! That ball zapped me!"

Ignoring him, she threw another chakram. Instead of dangerously being composed of steel blades, this one was made of pure light. It cut Khlua's forearm, again not piercing skin, but inducing enough pain to think otherwise. After recovering, he ran towards Colette and grabbed her arm. He mentally forced his aura to collide with Colette's, creating a good amount of friction. The result was obvious. With a zap-like sound, Colette jumped back in pain, and Khlua threw her to the ground, afterwards wrapping her arm with another whip. This time, he used it to slam her against the ground on the other side of him.

After a few seconds of this, Colette began to protest.

"I'm done, I'm done! I give! I give!"

"All right."

He let go of his whip, letting it dissipate. Afterwards, he knelt beside Colette and helped her up.

"You okay? Sorry, I didn't realize I was being so rough with you."

"Aw, never mind. I'm okay, but you scared the crap out of me!"

"I 'scared the crap' out of you, huh? I think you're starting absorb the atmosphere here. Your vocabulary has certainly expanded."

"Sorry, I just hear Zangoose say it all the time, so it kind of caught on."

Suddenly, a loud sound like a microphone being "tuned" came through the air.

_"Hello, testing, testing. Okay, it seems like this works! Well, I just wanted to inform the fighters that we've had a slight schedule change. Instead of the former times, the Christmas dinner and gift giving celebration have both been moved to eight-o-clock. That's half an hour, everyone! Toodles!"_

"Did Master Hand just say 'toodles'?

"I think so. Strange. I've never heard Master so happy before. Why do you think that is, Khlua?"

"I don't know. Wait...did he say that now both the celebration and the dinner are at eight now?"

"Yea, I think so. Why?"

_Ugh...that screws up my plans for meeting with what's-her-face. I'll have to think this through a bit more._

"Well, it takes fifteen minutes to get to the mansion on foot if you take the scenic route,"

Colette mumbled, "so I think I'll head out at quarter-'til. See ya then, Khlua."

"Yea...see ya."

_If the scenic route will take fifteen minutes on foot, then I might as well tag along, A walk will clear my head._

"You don't mind if I tag along, do you?"

"Of course not, as long as you're okay with Lloyd and Presea coming, too."

"Sure. Sounds great. Thanks."

Khlua headed off towards his dorm to gather up gifts and such. Dodging a final rush from Toon Link to get cooking, Khlua put all of his gifts in a spare box from Prime World.

"All right, it's all here. I have five minutes to spare. Might as well read something."

He took a random manga out of his pile and looked at the cover.

"Oh no, it looks like I brought some of my sister's manga too. I don't recall ever buying Fruits Basket. Oh well. I'll just return it in a month, when the teleporter gets back online. Hm. School will be back by then, so I guess I'll have to going a lot of homework to do, huh? How boring – in a whole other galaxy and I still can't ditch the high school drama."

He picked up a Hellsing copy and sat back for that instead. After an amazing two minutes, he had speed-read half the book, and now it was time to meet up with the others.

"Too bad. I wonder what the scenic route is, anyways."

He set down his book and picked up the gift-box, setting out for what could be considered an adventure. When he finally reached the ice fountain, Colette gestured over to Khlua to get over there. He did, and noticed that the others were carrying bags and boxes as well.

"So what did you get me, Khlua?" Colette playfully asked.

"Oh, I got you a pet tyrannosaurus-rex."

"What's a tirrynosurus-rix?"

"Never mind, it was a joke. Well, let's hit the road."

Colette quickly took an icicle off of the fountain and began to beat the snowy ground with it.

"What, in the name of God and all that is holy," Khlua began, "are you doing?"

"Hitting the road."

Khlua sighed, before continuing, "That means 'let's go,' Colette."

"Oh."

After some laughter, the group continued to walk towards a forest that was hidden behind the Assist Trophy building. If not for the angel, Khlua probably would never have noticed it. The pine trees were full of snow, and the way the sun glittered off of the frozen ponds made it all the more beautiful.

"Hey," Lloyd asked, "do you think there are any fish in there?"

"Of course;" Khlua replied, "we should bring everyone down here to go fishing some time."

"Sounds good."

The group walked in silence for a minute or two before Presea finally spoke up.

"Hey, Colette, what kind of gifts did you get us?"

"Uh, well, I picked up some cool stuff in the woods. That's all I'll tell you."

"Lloyd?"

"Well, I tried to make some stuff, but Dad could've done it much better."

"Khlua?"

"Oh, bits and pieces from Prime World. How 'bout you, Presea?"

"Oh...uh...I have some things from Tethe'alla, and some food I cooked...but that's it."

"That's not real specific."

"Neither were you, Khlua!"

"Hey guys!" Lloyd exclaimed, just a little too excitedly, "There's the mansion. We'd better get there before they start eating!"

"Good idea!" Khlua agreed. Without food for several hours, Khlua was ready for that dessert bar. The group began to run towards the mansion, awkwardly leaping out of the five inch deep snow in every step. Finally, they kicked and patted off the snow and walked into the lavish halls of Master's abode.

"And that's it!" Master exclaimed to the crowd of Smashers gathered there, as the four walked in, "It's time to eat! There's enough for everyone, so no pushing or shoving."

Lloyd left to go talk with Meta Knight and a few others, while Colette, Presea and Khlua walked over to Lucario and Amaterasu.

"Hey," Khlua said, "where's Zangoose? She's normally with you guys. And Blaze. Where are they?"

"They decided to go talk girl stuff with others." Lucario responded, without a single hint of emotion.

"Okay. So. Here are your presents, guys. I guess we open them as we eat?"

"Right."

"Okay. I'll go find those two."

In the corner of the room, Blaze and Zangoose were alone, talking to each other.

"Zangoose! Why do you look so depressed? And you, Blaze?"

"Oh," the Pokemon replied impersonally, "hey Kloo-Kloo."

"You have names for everyone, don't you? Well, here are your presents."

"Ooh!" Zangoose's eyes lit up, "goody! Ya better have gotten me something awesome!"

"Same here." the cat said, swiping the present and sitting up against the wall.

"All right, you two. Just put my presents over there." he said, gesturing towards the seat he had laid his box by.

Khlua grabbed a plate and some food. Muffins, steak, pudding and even sauerkraut couldn't escape his hold. He had tried abut everything when he noticed Presea standing by his seat. He sat over there, and looked at the girl.

"Why are you hovering over by my stuff?" he asked, staring at the pile of gifts waiting to be opened.

"Oh. I just wanted to give you mine personally. And have you open mine last."

"Okay."

He grabbed the top present, which was labeled "Lloyd".

_Aww. Cares enough to get me something._

He ripped open the sloppily wrapped gift, revealing its contents. There was a little pendant in it, with an intricate symbol in blue on it. The symbol looked three lines, dividing the circular pendant into thirds. There was a note in the box, as well.

_This is just something I cooked up on the iron. It should boost your aura powers outside of battle, although that probably won't do too much good unless you were training. I got one for Lucario, too, but his works a little better. Sorry 'bout that._

Khlua set that down by his plate and opened up the next box. This one was from Ammy. The ornate wrapping seemed to have characters from an Asian language written on it, but his school only offered Spanish and French, so he couldn't read them. Inside the box was a small steel figure of...Khlua. There was a note nearby that read

_Took hours of Slashes and Infernos, so I hope you appreciate it._

Next was Colette's, which was orb-shaped. It was a sphere of uncut azurite, a blue rock that glittered with silver as well. In the next box was Blaze's present, which was a simple gold coin. The note tucked behind it read

_Sorry, this is all I could think of. Gold is worth a lot over in Prime World, or so I've heard. Be sure to sell it, Khlua. Buy yourself something. Your welcome._

As he looked around, Khlua noticed that there weren't any more presents – namely, Lucario didn't give one. It couldn't be helped. He probably had things on his mind.

"So," Presea said with a rare smile, "you have to open my gift, now."

She handed him a rectangular box with simple red wrapping. Khlua tore open the gift, and saw inside a small, round yellow cake, just about half a foot in diameter. It was three or so inches tall, and the top was a caramel brown, although there were no toppings.

"I made it from a recipe I got from the Professor. She called it a 'scientific breakthrough'. I call it curry cake. Just try it."

Suddenly, Lloyd came up to Khlua and started speaking what sounded like gibberish.

"Hlua-kay, ix-nay on the ake-cay! The Ofessor-pray's ood-fay ills-kay..."

"I'll just try it, Lloyd. If it isn't asty-tay, I'll ow-thray it away-yay."

"Oh, so you can speak pig Latin. I thought they just had it in Sylvarant."

Khlua took a bite out of the cake, holding it in his paws like a sandwich. It did taste like curry, but it had a little bit of sweetness to it, too.

"You know what, this is really good. I think I could get used to these."

He nibbled more on the cake, leaving Lloyd surprised.

"Glad to hear it!" Presea exclaimed.

_She seems a lot peppier today. That's good. It wouldn't be normal to mope around on Christmas. Oh, wait. I almost forgot._

Khlua reluctantly set down the curry cake and began to look for Lucario. Presea followed, obviously worrying that he was lying and was going to hurl, or something.

Lucario was (again) cornered by Zangoose.

"Tell me, Lucario. Tell me now."

"No. That's final!"

Khlua joined in, "Lucario, we really are worried. Tell us."

"Tell us, Lucario!"

"Fine!" the Pokemon shouted just a little too loudly, "I'll tell you, dammit!"

Every fighter glanced over for a second, but turned away, knowing that that would keep them alive a lot longer.

"It's because of something that happened in Sinnoh, okay? On Christmas, trainers are supplied with whatever they want, as long as it can be used to capture more Pokemon. On this Christmas, me and...my family...we decided to have a good meal to celebrate. We gathered berries from all over the place, and even managed to find some stray meat. When we finally finished, we ate. In the middle of the meal, we heard weird noises outside. Mom and Dad decided to...to go check it out. Me and my younger brother heard another weird noise after they left. After that, we smelled smoke from the outside. We went to check it out, and what we saw ruined our lives, broke our spirits, forever. There were humans outside...and they were completely ignoring the corpses they had left outside the front door. My mother and father...they were shot to death. And my brother? He walked out a bit more, and a stray piece of the house had fallen on him. It was on fire. They set...the house...they set the house on fire! They killed them all. After that happened, they started catching scared Pokemon that ran because of the fire. They didn't even catch any of them. They left, laughing. They killed them. That's it."

Tears welled up in the Pokemon's eyes.

"There. And...thank you...guys. I don't...I don't think I've ever told anyone about that before. I fell...kind of relieved. Thanks. So...now that that's over, why don't you guys get back to the party. I'll...join you guys in a sec."

Then, he did something that Khlua, Presea, hell, no one, had ever seen. A genuine smile. Nothing forced, nothing faked, a real smile. Enjoyment. Happiness. Cheerfulness.

"All right!" Zangoose exclaimed, "Now we can really have a party!"

The group quickly dispersed, leaving only Khlua there in the corner.

_Well, goal number one, clear. Now, it's time to move onto Plan B._

And so he did.

It was pretty easy to escape from the party – everyone was busy either talking, flirting or drinking. He actually saw Lucario talking to a very rosy Peach.

_I guess she's much more of a pleasant person when she's drunk, huh?_

Khlua closed the door to the ballroom. The mansion was a large, complex place, with a ballroom, an auditorium, twelve bathrooms, a guest room, a master bedroom, a kitchen and an office. The ballroom was stuffed, the office was occupied by Master, the kitchen had no hiding places, the bathrooms were being fought over, Khlua was in the auditorium and it was too weird for Master to keep a prisoner in his own bedroom, or whatever giant, omnipotent hands sleep in. That left the guest room. Wherever that was. Khlua noticed a door on the back of the stage, and he jumped up and opened it.

There was a hallway, leading to three other doors, two on the right, one on the left. The first door on the left looked very fancy, the door on the left had clicking sounds coming from it, but the third door was obviously the strangest. Outside of it was a large, left hand, snoring. Or whatever giant, omnipotent hands do in their sleep to bug the people in the same room. Fortunately, Crazy was just far enough from the door for Khlua to sneak into it. Sure enough, a hooded feminine figure was sitting there, on the bed, in handcuffs of sorts.

When her head cocked over to him, he could tell she was about to say something, but he put his paw to her lips, signaling to be quiet.

"I knew it!" she excitedly whispered as Khlua pulled a chair up for himself, "I knew I wouldn't be stuck here forever!"

"What do you mean?" the canine asked with a single eyebrow raised.

"I knew one of you would come to your senses and help me escape!"

"Who says I'm helping you escape? And to where?"

"Oh?" the girl relaxed, "You're not...helping me? Oh."

"Yea...well, I need answers from you. First of all, who are you, and where are you from?"

"Well," she said with a sigh, "it doesn't matter anymore. I guess I can tell you that."

She lowered her hood, revealing very...unique features. She was covered in chocolate brown fur, with green-white hair on top. She also had bunny ears, of all things, protruding from her head.

"I," she said, proudly, "am Shara. I'm from a land called Ivalice. Originally, that is. If you wonder about my...appearance, I am a-"

"A viera. An all-female rabbit-like people living in the Ivalice woodlands. They are masters of bowmanship and magic, specifically the summoning arts."

"Close, but not quite. You've just never _seen_ the males of our people. I guess you really are from Prime World, huh? Ritz told me that the Prime World people are very advanced in technology, and created all of our worlds by thought alone."

"Yea, sorta. Why are you here, Shara?"

"To tell you about Operation SaD."

"Sad? What's sad?"

It's an...I think you call it an acronym? It stands for 'Salvation and Damnation'. SaD. Anyways, it's kind of this plan about reversing the Prime World's downfall."

"We're already doing that. I'm here, supposedly transferring energy to Prime World so it doesn't collapse. What's so damning about that?"

"No, you have it wrong. That's not SaD. SaD is an alternative plan that Master Hand cooked up before this one."

Shara spat out the words "Master Hand" like they were poison.

"What it entails," she continued, "is a surefire way to save all of the Branch Worlds, the worlds other than the Prime. Think of all of the worlds as a quilt. The Prime World is in the center. If the Prime World loses a proverbial string, then it will untie all of the worlds when it gets yanked out. What SaD is all about is cutting the bonds to Prime World, like sealing it off so that nothing happens outside of it. This saves all of the Branch Worlds. Have you ever heard of a static void?"

"Yea, in Theoretical Physics class. Nothing happens, because nothing can happen. Time is kind of frozen. Wait...are you saying...that that's what SaD will do? Rip open the time-space continuum...and trap Prime World in the center of it?"

"That's right. The Hand has already set up security measures so that the rips don't get past the Prime. What's to say he won't continue? It'd be a hell of a lot faster than you transferring power back to it. Besides, what does he care about billions of lives compared to a trillion trillion lives? It's like a speck of dust on the big picture. Just wipe it off, and no one will be the wiser. It's not like the Prime Worlders can do anything about it. They'd be like statues in a-"

"Say. No. More."

"I was just going to explain that-"

"Don't tell me, you bitch!"

Khlua shot out a black aura whip at the viera, wrapping it around her neck, squeezing harder, lifting higher.

"I...I...was told...to tell you...that you can stop SaD..."

With a gasp, the viera fell back onto the bed, massaging her sore neck.

"How?"

"You just need to come with me. Come with us. We have the perfect solution."

"Oh? And what's to say I don't have a better one?"

"Hm?" she looked at him with a very confused look on her face. Suddenly, it was all too clear, though.

With three-foot long Soulcutters, Khlua hacked through the door, binding a waken Crazy with an aura whip that came out of the ground. Muffling the hand, Khlua continued on. Hatred radiated from his coal-black blades. As he steeped into the auditorium, chairs flew the second they got into a ten foot radius form him.

_Oh, I am going to enjoy this._

END~

Okay, don't freak out. Khlua's just going on a rampage in the Hand Mansion, spewing black aura and destroying anything in his way. I know I technically should have divided this into two chapters, but I was too lazy to. I was half asleep when I wrote this, so it's a little on the cheesy side. Sorry it took so long, and see ya next week or so – I'll work to publish the next one quick, since you can't take the suspense, can you? I don't own Shara, Ritz or Ivalice. Well, this is the first climax of the first arc. Yes, first climax, first arc. This is going to be a long, long story. Doesn't that make you so happy? ^-^ Also, I'm working on more character ideas. And I just noticed something. Ninety percent of the people on the list, including Shara and Ritz are...SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER...girls! Yay for all the manly Smash Bros fans! I'm personally excited. And you'd better be, or I'll send Khlua to your house. And you no like Khlua when he mad. And finally, Lucario's backstory was inspired by another fic by someone else. It's amazing, but I won't tell you what it is unless you really want to know.

^o^

Buh bye. Bye. If you're still reading this page, than you need to go do something else.

I'm serious. El chico serio.

Go do your chores or something. Do the dishes. Walk your dog. Shoo the penguin stalking you. It's outside your house. But you can't see it, 'cause it a ninja duck. Pengu-nin-duck.

Okay, that's all. Tune in next week. Bye.


	8. Feelings of Bitterness and Betrayal

As sorry as I am to have to say this, I'm not going to write exactly what happened right after the events of last chapter. Aw, I know, half of you are probably crying inside. Unfortunately, every time I tried it, I screwed up – I just couldn't bear to write it. Speaking of not being able to bear my own writing, I just about cried when I wrote chapter 7. Geez, that was pretty intense stuff. Anyways, I'm also writing another fic: Slayers: SHIFT. It's a Slayers fic, obviously, and fans of the anime/manga series should check it out, although you'll only need basic background info. I apologize for bad grammar, as one of my fellow writers complained to me about, the problem is that OpenOffice on my parents' desktop computer sucks and can't catch grammar. However, I will be moving my work to our laptop soon, which will provide a number of upsides and downsides. I will have better grammar and spelling, I will be able to write this during weekends and vacations, and will be able to type for longer periods of time. But, I will have to share with two or three people, I will be working on three to four fics at a time and I'm screwed if the cat eats the charger – again. A word of warning – if you get bored by Parliamentary Procedure at school or student council or anything, then feel free to skip when it comes up. It's really short though, and shows a new side of the mushroom princess.

Chapter 8 – Feelings of Bitterness and Betrayal

A whole week, all to his lonesome. Khlua looked up at the ceiling, a hobby he had seldom stopped since he was put under house arrest. After the "incident" at the Christmas party, Master Hand had restricted him to his room, and two guards had been posted just outside of it. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but Khlua still didn't seem completely satisfied. What happened? Who else knew? Of course, after seven days of thinking to himself, he realized that at least four people besides the Hands knew. Lucario, Presea, Amaterasu and Charizard had helped Master take in Shara. That left even more questions.

Why was the viera actually here? Who sent her? What was their benefit? What was their plan? To what extent had Master set up for SaD? To what extent were the others, his friends, involved? So many questions, and so little answers. All he wanted was to know. Why? How? Who?

Suddenly, someone began to knock at the door. Assuming it was breakfast, Khlua responded with, "Myrrh, I'm not hungry. Feel free to leave."

However, the visitor was not there for food.

"Look, Khlua," Lucario's voice said from behind the wall, "I...I'm sorry about it. You must have realized by now that I was involved. I knew. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Granted, there are secrets we should keep, but that was wrong of us. Wrong of me. I know it doesn't mean much, but...I'm sorry. And so are the others."

When he heard no reply, the Pokemon continued, "If it helps, no one blames you for what you did at the party. After hearing about the alternative plan, everyone understood. They don't like what you did, but they can respect and understand it. Khlua? Khlua, you can talk; Eliwood and Hector aren't allowed to be here during a private conversation."

Still hearing no reply, Lucario turned.

"I'm sorry for doing that." Khlua said, hoping it would reach his friend's ears. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't be the one apologizing. I was too curious, and I freaked out when I knew the truth. I hope that you can forgive me, though. Presea too. Tell her that no matter what, I hope we can all still be friends."

After a silent show of understanding, Lucario left to go outside. There was an important meeting going on today – for plans to stop whoever had sent the viera to convince Khlua to join them. Whoever they were, taking Khlua would mean dooming all of the worlds. Staying near the Hand mansion just barely kept Prime World going. If they stopped that...

Lucario used his Extremespeed to dash towards the mansion, hoping to get there in time. For some reason, Master was holding a conference to talk about Shara's "masters." Even if they talked, talking was all they could do. What else? They didn't know where "they" were. Even if they did, what could they do? Ask "them" politely to leave?

Lucario skid to a stop, letting snow fly towards the doors. As useless as Extremespeed was during a match, it worked wonders in the actual world. He grabbed the doors and swung them open, stepping into the regal mansion. Somehow, Master had put the mansion back together within the week. The place still reeked of black aura, though, and every time Lucario shut his eyes, black flame enveloping everything became quite visible. He made his way up to the ballroom, where it had happened. Oddly enough, Master had moved chairs and tables for people to sit down at. Everything was arranged in a circle, Master sitting at one side, and a gagged, bound Shara at the other. Lucario took a seat next to Presea. She looked as depressed as she was when she had gotten to the Smash world. Maybe even more depressed. How depressing.

"Presea, are you okay?" Lucario asked.

"Yes...just a little stirred. Everything was doing so well when we came here last week...but then..."

"Yea, I know. I went to see him just a minute ago. He wants us all to be able to stay friends. He says he's sorry."

"But...he did not do anything wrong...it was our fault! All ours!"

She put her face against the table, cushioning it with her arm. She made faint noises that made it obvious that Lucario probably shouldn't bother her for a bit.

Soon, almost every fighter was there, save the children, Eliwood, Hector and of course, Khlua. Master was seated...er, floated? Whatever hands do – in his seat. He motioned for everyone to be silent. However, there was no need to – everyone was silent enough to hear the snow outside ping against the glass windows.

"Now. Everyone," he began, "we all know what happened last night. Fortunately, the only casualty was the mood."

No one laughed at his failure of a joke. Normally they did.

"A-all right. Now, we all know that Shara must have some higher-ups. There must have been someone who ordered her here. We don't know exactly who they are and what they want. That's why I called you all here. How do we figure this out and what do we do to stop them? That is the question. Does anyone wish to start this meeting? Any opening statements? No? Let this meeting begin, then."

Normally, the way that meetings are held are much like they are in government. People suggest ideas, which will either be brought up for discussion or shot down right there. Even after that, it would still take a majority vote to pass.

"I think," Peach suggested, "that I have a good idea. I say that we skin the rabbit alive until she tells us what we want to hear. Any seconds?"

Many in the crowd promptly answered, "Second."

"I don't think this is a good idea," Master protested, "I'm sure that we could use her for some purpose."

"Yea," Lucario replied, fighting on the princess's side, "but God knows she deserves it."

This was followed by fidgeting from the viera, and a violent muffled scream. However, many Smashers seemed eager to follow through with this plan.

"No," Master repeated, "believe it or not, this is a dictatorship, not a democracy. What I say goes, and I say that we are _not_ going to kill Shara."

This, on the other hand, was followed by violent nods and sighs from the viera.

"Still," Presea said, obviously haven gotten hold of herself, "I think that she should be punished in some way. It _ is _her fault that all of that happened. I say that we go out and find these people, maybe negotiate. We should learn what they plan to do, at least. I also believe that _Shara_ should lead us to these people. Any seconds?"

"I second that, and I wish to add to it." Lucario said. "I think that we should make sure that _Shara_ will tell the truth. I don't know if you've heard about it, but in my world, there is a special berry that _encourages_ people to tell the truth."

"How does that work?" Master asked.

"A lie that is told anytime up to three days after eating the berry will cause violent shocks to the body, causing extreme pain, making it visible that they are lying and making it harder for the eater to tell lies afterwards."

"Sounds perfect to me. I think we should take a vote. All who are for it, please signify with an 'aye.'"

A few people repeated the sign.

"You know, Shara will most likely end up lying and getting shocked half to death."

"Aye!" everyone shouted in unison.

"All right, then that's it, then. Now, who should be on this team? I will call them to my office separately afterwards. Dismissed."

All of the Smashers picked themselves up, and began to leave.

"Lucario, Presea," Master said, beckoning them over, "come here for a minute."

"What is it that you want?" Lucario asked, bearing quite the attitude.

"Well," the hand said, "aren't you pissed? Anyways, I believe that you two, Amaterasu and Charizard should go on this journey. After all, I told you two about the plan resurfacing and the other two figured it out somehow along the way."

"Okay, but why? It's _your_ fault that all of this happened. How did the plan leak out? Would it have reached anyone's ears if you hadn't been already setting it up?"

"Excuse me? And what the hell do you mean? It's your fault as much as mine! I-"

"Would you two shut up?" Presea exclaimed.

Lucario and Master Hand flinched a little at her words, but listened intently to hear what she had to say.

"Look, we need to figure this all out, so we will go. We can set out tomorrow morning and have it done within a week. We will need provisions, but just enough for a few days. We can hunt for the rest, since food takes up a lot of space. Pack up two or three first aid kits so that we will not have to worry about injuries. Now then...Lucario, I believe we should inform Charizard and Ammy."

She turned, dragging the Pokemon by his wrist, leaving Master in a room, alone with the viera.

"It isn't my fault...it can't be." he assured himself. "After all, I created all of this. This world and everything in it! How dare he be so insolent! It isn't my fault that the boy learned about the fail-proof. Curses...he wasn't supposed to know about it...not ever..."

Khlua returned to the bookcase. Hours had passed, and he had memorized every square nanometer of the ceiling. A few books from the library would be like medicine for his soul. He picked out a random book.

_Relics of Altea...I think that's where Marth's from. I wonder what secrets the Fire Emblem worlds hold?_

He flipped to a random page. It had many different pictures of assorted staves on it. The staff on top could be used to repair broken weaponry, the one after that could drive enemies from afar berserk, and the third one...the third one's description was a bit vague. It said

"_This staff has the ability to give what only God can. What has been done can be undone, and so a fallen warrior can be given another chance."_

_ What does that mean? The gift that only God can...!_

Suddenly, he saw a familiar shine in his window. A yellow glint, almost like gold, but with a murky, sinister color. Every day, at the same time, ever since the house arrest started, that yellow shone across the window. Instead of finding it interesting, Khlua felt cold when he saw it. And today, he felt something even worse. Out of nowhere, the window shattered.

Khlua's cry echoed throughout the little village. Everyone heard that familiar voice. And then, a shrill cackle.

"What the hell?" Hector exclaimed as he knocked the door down. The curtains were ripped, glass covered the floor, books were strewn everywhere, but that wasn't the worst.

"Wait," Eliwood said, examining the wall, "is that...I could be wrong, but is that stuff there...blood?"

Lucario and Presea bolted into the room.

"What the hell was that?" Lucario exclaimed.

"Where is Khlua?" Presea asked, with a horrified look in her eyes.

With a grim expression on his face, Eliwood turned and said, "I'm afraid that the signs point to a kidnapping of some sort."

"No," Lucario disagreed, "that can't be it. Khlua could have fought whoever it was off. Khlua is _not_ weak."

"No," Hector explained, "it just means that the 'kidnapper' is strong. Khlua was one of our top fighters. If someone could take him without as much as a fight, then we must be messing up pretty big plans."

"Is that blood?"

"I'm afraid it looks like it is. Whether it's Khlua's or the attacker's, we have no way of knowing."

"But...if Khlua's gone, then how can we transfer energy to Prime World? The worlds will collapse!"

"Would you kindly shut the hell up?" Hector exclaimed.

"I see your etiquette training is coming along well, Hector." Eliwood commented.

"Stuff it, Eliwood. Master implanted a small fragment of the mansion in Khlua's body while it was being created. Because of that, he can stay away for about a month and the energy will still be transferred. It recharges every time he gets within a mile of the mansion, so he should still be transmitting."

"All right..." Lucario said, "then me and Presea will go get Amaterasu and Charizard, you guys can explain what happened to the Hand. I guess the trip has been stepped up to tonight. We'll leave at seven and set up camp somewhere nearby. We'll fill up and head out then."

The groups headed out, each with equally important missions. Lucario and Presea soon found Charizard and Amaterasu in the lounge, obviously shaken from the cry they heard earlier.

"Um..." Charizard murmured, "what the hell was that?"

"It was Khlua," Presea answered quickly, "he's...he's been...he's been kidnapped."

"What?" Amaterasu asked. But since, Presea couldn't understand what the wolf had said, Lucario answered, "Yea...we're still a little bit stirred by what happened. Anyways, we have to get to the mansion. We've been assigned the mission to find the enemy's secret base, and possibly Khlua as well."

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" Charizard asked, getting up while downing a a very large can with a green insignia on the side, "Let's get going, dammit!"

"I agree," Amaterasu barked, jumping down from her seat, "let's get going."

The group headed outside, but Lucario quickly leaped to the top of the building.

"I'm gonna Extremespeed there, okay? Just be sure not to be late."

Without sticking around to hear an answer, he sped his way across the roofs, not even needing to jump between them. With max speeds rivaling Mach One, he simply flew over the gaps. Things blurred, people, buildings, snow. In Extremespeed, you can't actually tell the difference. Lucario stopped just in time to not hit the doors. He waited patiently for about three minutes, until he saw the three others dashing towards the mansion. They were still a good minute away, though. Hector and Eliwood exited the building, surprising Lucario.

"Whoa," he said, "where'd you guys come from? Never mind, what did Master say?"

"He said," Eliwood explained, "that you should head out as early as possible, with Shara in tow. She knows where the base is, and you're supposed to know about the geography of this region."

"Yea, I guess so. Thanks for telling Master. You guys can...I don't know, do whatever teenage swordsmen do these days."

"You're one to talk," Hector scoffed, "how old are you? Three?"

"No, actually, I'm at least nineteen in human terms."

Having no more insults to sling, Hector walked away with Eliwood. Just then, Ammy, Charizard and Presea arrived.

"I trust that everything has been cleared up?" Presea asked in her old monotonous voice.

"Y-yea. Presea, don't go cold on us again – it took all month just to get you to act semi-normal. Don't waste all of Khlua's hard work; at least pretend that you're happy-ish.

"Okay. I apologize."

"No! That is _not_ normal. You say 'I'm sorry.' And no 'I am,' use the shorter words."

"I-I'm sorry!"

"Lucario!" Amaterasu exclaimed, "Stop being rude! She's just upset since her best friend just got kidnapped by God-knows-what, and that he might be hurt. Besides, you're one to talk – what happened to that social butterfly that was there at the party? Ever since Khlua freaked, you've reverted back to your old self, and when he was kidnapped, you got worse. Hopefully, you'll both be normal folks when we get through this ordeal."

"My," Master Hand said from the opened door, which no one noticed, "bickering already? It's not even day one, and you're already fighting amongst yourselves. Here are your provisions and your first aid kits, already packed in these wonderful, waterproof, lightweight backpacks. Aren't you all so delighted?"

He began to actually worry when no one laughed.

He groaned, "Oh, come now. Get over yourselves. You have thirty minutes to eat and say goodbye, and then it's off to search for Khlua. Now then, it's dangerous out there; take this with you!"

He leaned over, revealing Shara, bound in handcuffs. He shoved her out into the cold, and slammed the stone doors shut.

"Well," she said, "what's got you guys so gloomy?"

"Oh," Charizard answered sarcastically, "just that Khlua got kidnapped. By one of your friends., probably. There was just a little blood on the scene, nothing much."

"Bl-blood?" the viera asked nervously.

"Yes," Lucario answered, "blood."

"Then it must have been..._him_..."

"Stop talking to yourself. Let's get going. Climb on Charizard's back, and hang on."

"Why do I have to carry the ass?" Charizard whined.

"Because you have wings." Amaterasu answered. "Don't worry, I'll keep a constant wind behind you. You'll feel like she wasn't even riding. I'm sure we'll all get there fast."

"Oh?" Lucario asked with an eyebrow raised, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, just wait and see. But grab Presea for a sec, first."

"Wh-what? Where? How? Why?"

"Shut up and grab her! Just hold her hand."

He did so, and suddenly, a vine grew out of the plate that floated above Ammy's back and wrapped around Lucario's waist.

"Mush!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not a friggin' dog."

He used Extremespeed, and carried both Presea and Ammy along with him. Surprisingly, Ammy's winds blew Charizard very well – he was keeping up with Lucario's speed. Within a minute, both groups were in the lounge, getting ready for their food.

"So," Lucario began, "any other secrets we should know about, Ammy?"

"Nah. Well, maybe one. If you piss me off, I can chop your head off from a hundred feet away."

"A-all right."

Some time passed, before Lucario felt the need to ask, "Amaterasu, how old are you?"

"What? You should never ask a lady that. But I'll give you a hint – I was walking since before your grandmother's grandmother did."

"That old, huh? Well, apparently, humans think that I'm only three."

"That's not true," Presea interjected, surprising Lucario with a "that's," "I think you're at least twenty. You're certainly mature enough to be."

"Th-thanks. And you, Charizard?"

"Exactly twenty-one starting last week."

"What?" Presea asked, "Don't Pokemon hold birthday parties?"

"Nah."

"That's kind of sad."

Soon, a R.O.B. came over and delivered their food. Shara looked at hers and poked it with her fork.

"This certainly looks better than that nasty grime that the Hand was feeding me." She took a big bite of fish, occasionally drowning it in ketchup.

"Are you done yet?" Charizard asked while chugging a frothy drink in an orange tinted glass.

"No. Unlike you guys, I have no obligations, responsibilities, and am ruled by-"

"No authority?" Lightning asked from behind. Shara jumped up and almost fell out of her seat.

"Wh-what the hell? And how did you know what I was going to say?"

"Because I know someone who says about the same thing back on Pulse. It's too bad that he didn't show up here – I think I'd have a pretty good time going hand-to-hand against someone I know."

"So," Lucario asked, "why are you here?"

"No reason. Why, do I have to have one?"

"No, but we'd prefer it if you did. And Ammy, what exactly did you just finish eating?"

"Pickles. And ice cream."

Lightning let out a short gasp, just as Lucario and Charizard did.

"What? Is there something wrong with that? What's wrong with it?"

"N-no," Lucario said, his fur reddened at the thought of...something..."it's just that...when people eat weird things suddenly..."

"It usually means that..." Lightning trailed off.

"That they're pr-pr-preg..." Charizard said, almost unable to contain himself.

They stopped talking, and the issue was slowly dropped. Shara finished her food and the group, leaving Lightning behind, went off, with their bags, towards the exit to the snowy village.

As they lost sight of the buildings, skeleton trees became more and more common. Finally, they found themselves in a forest.

"Where are we?" Amaterasu asked.

"We still haven't cleared the mansion's range," Lucario answered, "but I think it's safe to set up camp."

He took his bag off and took off a small orange ball with a string attached to it. He pulled the string and threw the ball to the ground. It quickly expanded into a tent roughly six feet tall, five feet wide and ten feet long.

"Don't you think that'll attract attention?" Shara asked.

"No," Lucario answered, "because it turns invisible, along with everything in it. We can fit quite a bit in there, and no one will be the wiser. Now, Charizard will sleep closest to the door, then me, Ammy, Presea and then you, Shara."

"Why am I in the back?"

"Because you're the damn prisoner. We can't have you escaping, can we?"

Suddenly, they heard bushes behind them rustle. Lucario turned around, and fired an aura sphere at them. It exploded and knocked out a few people. To be exact, Colette, Zangoose, Myrrh and Lightning.

"What the hell are you all doing here?" Charizard exclaimed.

"Well," Colette explained, "Me and Zangoose wanted to help our friends, Myrrh came along to help her 'master' and Lightning came here because she has to follow me around.

"Believe me," Lightning groaned, "taking care of a teenage angel is harder then it sounds."

"But were are we going to put you?" Lucario yelled.

"Oh," Zangoose said, taking a familiar stringed ball from behind her back, "we brought a tent. And don't worry, we can help with hunting and stuff, so we won't be a burden."

"I-I promise," Myrrh stammered, "I'll help too...I can keep watch...for tonight. If that's all right with you, Master Luca."

"M-master Luca?" Lucario exclaimed, "When did I replace Khlua?"

"You haven't; you're just...substituting for him."

"Right...well, you girls can go sleep in your tent. Don't worry, Myrrh, I'll keep watch tonight."

"N-no, I can handle it myself."

"But you're just a girl-"

He was corrected when she transformed into a murky yellow dragon. She flew behind a tree, knocked it over and set it ablaze. Everyone else ran over to absorb the heat, but Lucario just stood there, feeling ever so stupid for forgetting about Myrrh's abilities as the centuries-old Great Dragon. Ignoring the flame, he lumbered into the tent and set up a sleeping bag for himself. He fell into bed, covered his head and wished for morning to come.

END~

Okay, this was still a pretty long chapter. I couldn't help it, I was bored. All that aside, I want you all to know this fun fact: did you know that I originally planned out Charizard's part for Wolf? I'm not kidding. Speaking of Charizard, I know I sort of thrust him into a "friend" position, but think of him more as an acquaintance. Anyways, obviously the next chapters will be Khlua-less. This will be about developing relationships within his social circle. Yay! Anyways, time for me to work on my other stuff. You have to remember that I'm writing two fics of my own, thinking about a third and helping two other people out. Of course, their stories aren't quite as good as mine, but they're all right. I thank them, Gammaboy3 and Firemaster23 for being loyal fans and friends, helping me and bugging me to get to work. Please review this story, because I feel really inspired after I read something. Even if you just say "You did good, but you spelled 'about' A-B-U-T." Just say something! Anyways, see you next chapter, and so long. Oh, and bonus points if you can figure out who/what kidnapped Khlua before I reveal it to you! Think: dirty gold eyes, shrill cackle, violent. Thanks for reading!


	9. Song of Death

**Yay for the ability to use the laptop! Even if my stories aren't pro-level, I still like reviews. Especially from certain people I KNOW have accounts (FireMaster and Gamma...) Anyways, read, review and all that other stuff. I know the ending to chapter 8 was really sudden, but I was lazy. I will give more hints as to who the heck kidnapped Khlua. You probably won't know them unless you've played the game with them in it. I say "them" because I'm not going to say whether they are a he, she or it. Anyways, I'm probably boring you again, so I'll just start.**

Chapter 9 – Song of Death

Lucario rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he picked his head off of his pillow. It had gotten uncomfortable to the point that ignoring being awake wasn't working anymore. It wasn't clear how late it was, but Charizard was the only one in the tent that was still asleep. He didn't snore, but an enormous dragon with a something-hundred degree flame on its tail sort of bothered people sleeping just a few feet away from him.

Lucario stepped right over the Pokemon, trying not to step in the flames for fear of being badly burnt. He held the tent's curtain aside and stepped outside, shielding his eyes from the sun. He saw Colette, Presea and Amaterasu seated at chairs which they seemingly built. Each were made with two small logs as legs and a large one cut in half to make a flat seat on top.

"What are you girls doing here?" he asked.

"We didn't want to go out to hunt." Presea answered.

"We got some edible roots and berries though," Colette quickly added, "and some bigger fruit, too!"

"Calm down, Colette." Lucario said with a laugh, "I'm not going to send you back, even if you were useless."

She sighed with relief, "Oh, good. I was kinda worried, there."

Amaterasu chuckled, "Colette, Colette, whatever will we do with you?"

Suddenly, Lucario realized something.

"Where the hell is the viera?"

Surprised, Colette answered, "I-I don't know! We didn't see anyone exit! And we've had someone watching the tent all this time, too!"

"Who the hell missed our rabbit prisoner escaping?"

"Well," a mysterious voice from behind answered, "I sure didn't."

Lucario whirled around to see something he certainly didn't expect. The owner of the voice was a pink teddy bear with a cream belly. The only way it could get funnier was if it had a heart in the center of it. But Lucario wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Who the hell are you, and what do you mean?"

"I'm Sissel. Myrrh brought me along. I've been watching this tent since Shara went to sleep, and I haven't seen her exit."

"Ugh...everyone! Search the forest for Shara's prints!"

Quickly, everyone split up. Lucario took a densely forested path. The snow had stopped since the morning and hadn't shown its soft, white face since. The Hakka Forest hadn't seen much action since Rayquaza had attacked Fox and Diddy by the Hakka Bay. Fortunately, it seemed that Lucario had made the right choice when he decided to follow this path. As he muttered to himself for letting the viera get away, he came across some half-hidden footprints. The prints didn't seem too fresh, but they weren't well hidden at all. It seemed to Lucario that if Shara did in fact escape, she didn't care about being caught. That didn't matter. After all, the less she cared about escape, the easier it would be for Lucario and the others to find her.

As Lucario reached a clearing. He recognized it as the clearing that led to Hakka Bay. Though it was referred to as a lake during the Subspace Incident, an earthquake had opened it up to the sea, therefore turning it into a bay. So goes the history of Hakka Bay.

The clearing was quite different, though. Either that, or he had never noticed it. And that wasn't possible. There was a cavern hidden between two fir trees. Two holes in the cave wall acted as natural windows. Through one of them, he saw two brown ears.

_Well. That was done quick._

Lucario was sure not to step on any twigs on his way to the cavern. When the path was clear, he used Extemespeed and crept up behind the wall. He was astonished that he was hearing what he was hearing. The viera...was crying?

"Oh..." she said, with a slight pang of hurt in her voice, "this is bad...I can't believe they sent _him_. If _he_ got to Khlua...why am I so worried? It won't be my fault. But still...he might not...if he...then the worlds...they'll all perish."

Lucario made a slight gasp as he listened, and Shara turned to see him.

"Oh. Hi, Lucario. I thought that you would be the one to find me. After all, no one else would have managed to see any of those clues."

"Clues? You...led me here on purpose. I see. Now...what were you saying about _him_ and Khlua? And the worlds perishing?"

"Well, I might as well tell you. No one knows his name, but he fought up the ranks of our...army, you could call it, and he did it easily. He is within our leader's inner circle, the Ring of Generals. He is said to have skin as black as the night, and hair as white as the moon. He can't be defeated, and he kills all of his opponents. He likes to torture them by ripping wounds in their flesh and them filling their veins with toxins. The poison burns you to death from the inside, and that's not it. He slowly tears his enemy to pieces, even after you're dying of the poison. He makes sure not to harm any vital points, so you don't die."

"I'm sure that we could beat him."

"No. You can't. And when you die, he'll turn to me. One time, when an inferior soldier looked at him funny, he jumped on him and ripped his whole nervous system out through his fingertips. I watched...it...it was horrible! What would he do to me, Lucario? I'm scared! I'll die! I brought the enemy to the HQ! Even Ritz...what would happen to Ritz? She helped me get here, and if she lives, what will she do without help? She never would've survived in Ivalice without me! I'm scared! For me, for Ritz, and yes, for Khlua! If Khlua survived the trip to HQ, then he's probably dying in a cell, strung up with his wrists above him, three feet off the ground!"

_I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into when she got involved with this bunch._

"I'm sorry, Lucario. I'm done ranting. I'll be good. I just had to get that out of me. Off my chest. I haven't quite been myself since Khlua's been kidnapped."

"In that case, that chalks us up to three people. Presea, you, and yes, me. We've all just been edgy since he was kidnapped. I just hope you can be yourself. However the hell that was like."

"Yes, sir."

"Was that the original you?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right, then. It's high time that we left for the camp. Everyone else is probably ready to go."

"Yes, sir."

Shara picked herself up and followed Lucario back to the camp.

"Hey!" Amaterasu yipped, "It's time you got back! Everyone else gave up and got ready to leave for that peak place."

"It's Mount Blitzkrieg!" Lucario yelled back, although they were only ten or so yards away from each other.

"Whatever, let's go."

And so they did.

It wasn't too hard moving through Hakka Forest, now that there weren't Primids and Mytes jumping out at you at every corner. The only problem was the constant bumps in the road. Mostly, everyone was silent. That kind of bothered Lucario. Zangoose wasn't making jokes, Colette wasn't laughing, Presea wasn't feigning smiles. Even Charizard hadn't said much.

"Hey," Lucario said, breaking the hour-long silence, "I just noticed that most of our party seems to be girls. Why do you think that is?"

"Possibly because girls are more capable." Shara replied.

"It's not a bad thing that most of our group is girls." Charizard explained, "In fact, Squirtle would be having the time of his life if he were here. Pervy bastard. Still, why don't we enjoy ourselves, eh, Lucario? Eh?"

Replying with a chuckle and a smile, Lucario chalked this up to a win. He had successfully beaten boredom, albeit just for a bit. It didn't matter, anyways. Hakka Forest had stopped abruptly, and now the group stood in front of none other than Mount Blitzkrieg. It was named so because the Smashers had used it during the Subspace Incident as a major fort. It had won them the battles in the center of this continent. It had especially helped to deploy their gunships. But either way, this did not matter.

As the group hiked up the icy mountain, the snow dug into their flesh. The relentless blizzards were like murders of crows, claws raking the travelers' faces. Finally though, it had begun to let up.

"Hm." Presea mumbled, "I guess that the worst is over."

Then, a very soft melody coming from higher up the mountain rang through the cold air. It sounded like singing, but it had the flowing notes of a flute of some sort.

"No..." Shara murmured, "you haven't...even...begun to see...the worst..."

The whole group fell, exhausted, to their knees. Just before Lucario blacked out, he saw a woman, stepping towards them. And then, all went black.

As he woke, he noticed he was in a bed. A rather comfortable bed. There was a fireplace just next to the bed, heating his cold fur right up. The ice on his nose had melted right off, and his tail no longer had a ball of snow at the end of it. He sat up in bed and tried to remember what had just happened.

"What...what happened? We all fell asleep...no. It must have been that woman that I saw just before I passed out. She must have been singing us all to sleep. Then why am I here? I assume she was an enemy, so why am I in such a fancy room? Being heated up? And where are the others?"

Soon, his questions would be answered. A knock on the door echoed all over the room. For lack of a better thing to say, Lucario invited them in.

It was the woman. She had light brown hair, covering the top right part of her face and falling down to her shoulder blades. Her steely gray-blue eyes betrayed her emotion – she seemed quite pleased. Maybe because she had captured him and his friends? No, more like a little girl admiring a puppy that she couldn't have. Her clothing looked rather medieval, and she had a wand tipped with a winged star strapped to her waist.

"Hello," she said, "I brought some soup, in case you're interested."

Apprehensive, Lucario slowly stepped towards her and quickly snatched away the cup that she offered him. It was full of brown broth, full of what looked like beef and cabbage. It was rather simple, but it smelled and tasted absolutely wonderful.

"I...I hope you like it."

"Y-yea. It's good. Thanks, I guess."

Lucario set the bowl down on a coaster that was on an end table next to his bed.

"So...uh...why did you do that? To us, I mean."

"I apologize, I was ordered not to let anyone through. You just looked like someone that I met a bit ago, though."

_She must be with the enemy. When she says "someone I looked like," then she must mean..._

"Did you meet...Khlua?"

"Yes, I did. Me and Sergeant Branford were tasked with taking care of him. He had some...rather nasty wounds, though. With our help though, he should survive."

"Hm. Well, I'm almost afraid to ask, but could you take us to him?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"And why the hell not?"

She obviously wasn't expecting this puppy to get so pissed.

"W-well, I can't. I was ordered not to. The higher-ups have plans, and we can't let anyone interfere."

"Plans for what?"

"To save the world. I was told that Khlua can power up the X-Gem. The X-Gem is a stone that holds a large amount of power and amplifies it. Afterward, it spreads the energy throughout the worlds, which will save the worlds from destruction. Prime World is falling through, you know."

"But! That's...exactly what _we're_ doing! Except without this 'X-Gem.' We transmit the energy through the Hand Mansion."

"But...what we were told was that you were keeping him there so that you would have dominion over the Prime World..."

"What? That's BS! We were working perfectly fine until your guy kidnapped Khlua!"

"But we had him taken...to save him..."

"Bull! We found blood all over his room, and you said yourself that he had wounds!"

"But...he told us you all did it...Ku-"

"I don't care who this Ku-whoever is! You all kidnapped him, almost killed him and then you accuse _us_ of hurting him! Our friend! Our best...friend!"

"I'm sorry. You probably feel a little offended, to say the least. But this is confusing. We were told we were doing the right thing. But now that you point it out...you're right. This is kind of suspicious. I'll look into it. I'll tell you what I find out."

After hearing the Pokemon scoff, the woman grabbed his paw, looked him in the eye and continued, "Look. I'm on your side. I just want to save this world, and all the others. I don't care what it takes or who I'm following, as long as it's the right choice. I didn't know about all of this. I'll do whatever I can to help you all."

As she walked out of the room, Lucario quickly said, "I'm Lucario. What's you're name?"

"I'm Mys...no. Just call me Tear. Tear Grants. Thank you, Lucario. For trusting me."

She walked out the door and closed it. The door automatically locked when she shut it, so it looked like Lucario would have to occupy himself in the meantime.

He walked over to a bookcase that seemed chock-full of different kinds of books. He pulled out a random magazine and looked at the cover. It was all pink, so he couldn't tell what it was about. He flipped it open and instantly regretted it. He dropped it to the floor.

"Porn."

He stood there for a second, trying to pull his forsaken mind out of the proverbial gutter. Snapping himself back to reality, he pulled out another book. The cover was faded, but he could read "Relics" and "Altea." Recognizing the latter word, Lucario laid down on the bed and flipped open to a random page. It was about staves. He instantly focused on the bottom one.

"The ability to bestow the gift only God is supposed to. What 's that? A soul? Birth? A pass to heaven? Or maybe..."

Tear knocked on the door again. It was obviously her, because the knock was weak yet strong, polite and sensitive. Lucario's reply to the tender knock was, "Come on in, Tear."

He had met her once, but it was hard not to trust her. Her eyes alone convinced him that she was a good person. She seemed to have a good heart. Charizard would say that her heart wasn't the only thing good about her, though.


	10. Guilt, Regret And The Consequences

**Finally, I get to work on my fave fic! Sorry – I decided to publish a third fic based on a flipnote manga(which I created in the first place, anyways) so I haven't had time to think or work. And it must be so hard to take my story seriously when I write "Bit if I die" instead of "but." God! Oh well. I just gave myself a head-desk – the face-palm wasn't good enough. Anyways, if you couldn't tell, the pink book was a reference to Hetalia. That was a funny scene, so I just _had_ to use it. Back to the Bit-But problem. I'm going to reread it after I have Gamma proofread, so I should catch mistakes. Oh, and not to depress you or anything, this is a filler that one of my IRL friends has been nagging me about for a while. To put it as he said, "What the hell happened to Blaze?" So what did happen to everyone who didn't go on the expedition? This happened. And since I haven't done this in a while: I don't own any characters besides Khlua. Now, back to the series we all know and love. Right? XD**

Chapter 10 – Guilt, Regret And The Consequences

Blaze let out a heavy sigh. "Damn..." she muttered, "what's taking that Pokemon so long?"

Ever since her friends – _All of them, dammit! _as she would constantly remind herself_ – _had left on the expedition, the cat had made it a habit to check with Mewtwo every week to see how they were all doing. Despite his cold reaction to most people and things, he had made a good substitute for the gang while they were gone. Better yet, Master was using the Pokemon's psychic abilities to keep tabs on the group, so Blaze could get info about how they were doing.

Suddenly, the mansion door creaked open. There was Mewtwo, with dark rings under his eyes. Using his power twenty-four seven was sure to exhaust him, even if he did occasionally have a week off for sparring. And sparring alone.

"So," Blaze said, walking up to him, "what's the score?"

"They're good so far. Gone for a month, but after the Primids and the rest of the Subspace Army left, animals and fruits have taken over much of the planet, so they have plenty of food. In addition, it seems that not all is settled in the Rabbit Faction."

The kidnappers of Khlua had earned the nickname "Rabbit Faction" because not only had they sent a viera to do the initial "job," but whenever Mewtwo tried to remotely view – remote-viewing is a psychic technique allowing people to see a different, faraway place – the Faction dug a psychic hole and hid in it, leaving the Pokemon unable to grasp more than a few details about it.

"Damn. They're good. I mean everyone, not the Rabbits."

"No, they're good too. Sure, the expedition has survived on rabbit stew for a while...oh, that sounded like a joke. Well, they've survived on animals and berries, the Faction must have powerful psychics, magicians or something, because the only things I've discovered are the things that Lucario and the others have."

"Like what? And what was that about not being settled?"

"Apparently, the expedition has made an unlikely friend on both ends. Lucario has met with and convinced a woman by the name of Tear to help, and Khlua has met a girl who has only been identified as Sergeant Branford. By Khlua's thoughts, though, I can tell he believes that she isn't rigid about her position in the Faction. Maybe he knows more about her – he always seems to know things about everyone else."

"Actually, Lightning explained that to me. On Prime World, our worlds were simply made when people created these things called 'video games.' Each video game series had gathered enough thought and emotion energies to materialize and they did. Into our worlds."

"Primerian games account for our existence? Imagine the god-complex they must have."

The Smashers had created the term "Primerian," meaning from Prime World.

"I don't know – the only Prime Worldian I know isn't like that."

"What a coincidence – same here."

They shared a short chuckle but then got back to serious.

"So, then," Blaze asked, "they're all okay?"

"Yea. What you should be more worried about is this dance coming up."

"Why? I should go to the Valentine's Day dance _just_ because I'm a girl? Or 'cuz I'm a princess?"

"No, that's not quite what I meant-"

"Yea, I know. Sorry, I just kinda...freak on people."

"It's okay. If you really don't want to go, then I can help you spend your time. Just be sure to meet me outside of the fourth dorm at eight. See ya then."

Before Blaze could respond, Mewtwo had teleported to some place unknown. Cursing him for being so damn vague, she turned and plodded off through the grass, covered in fresh morning dew. The last of the snow was melting off of the top of the roofs of buildings. Spring was coming early this year. The cat's boots were as white as the fading snow, glistening with water droplets. It was kind of strange, walking through the plaza without the crunch of snow and ice. The fountain burbled as it sprayed water out, occasionally splashing a nearby onlooker. Blaze found a seat in the form of a bench.

_What should I do to waste time 'til then? Mewtwo poofed, Lyn's probably asleep, Zangoose, Colette and the other girls all came along with Presea and the rest...damn. _

_ "_Why didn't I go too?" she yelled, grasping her head. No one could have heard her, they were too far away. She still felt crowded in her mind. Crowded by the emotions that wouldn't leave her alone. She could vividly remember her friends' offer.

"Come on!" Zangoose had insisted, "Forget about all the crap back here – come with us and help the others!"

"I'm sorry," she remembered saying, "but...that wouldn't feel quite...right..."

"Please!" Colette pleaded. Her eyes had been saying more than was necessary. _Help._

"But, I...I just..."

"B-Blaze...!" Myrrh had said, "Come on...! We might not have a chance like this again!"

"I know it's right...but I can't. I can't go."

She had been so...so...

"Weak!" she yelled at herself again, dragging her brain out of her memory. "I'm so weak! I can't what? Risk my life for others? I've done it so many times before, though! Why couldn't I help them? Khlua, Lucario, Presea, Charizard, Ammy, Colette, Zangoose...and everyone else. I let them down. I'm a horrible person! How could I have let this chance slip through my fingers? Like...like..."

"Like sand through the hourglass?" a high pitched voice asked from behind.

As Blaze jumped up and whirled to see who it was, she replied, "Tch. How would you know anything?"

Peach offered a weak smile and said, "Well, I know. It doesn't matter how, but if you really want to know, I'll tell you."

"No, I don't want you telling me any princessy fairy tales, you jackass!"

"Look, I know I may have come across as bossy and a real bitch, and I'll admit, I was. I'm always like that in the beginning of my stay here. You know why? It's because I can't stand it. I can't stand having people fight my battles for me. That's all that ever happens when I'm in my world. I get kidnapped, Mario, Luigi and God knows who else come and save me. Even here, when I can put up a good fight against even Ganondorf, Mario, Luigi and Toadsworth, God damn that shroom, insist that I should drop out and let the _men_ battle it out for me. I can _never_ do anything myself. Until I started _maturing_, I wasn't even allowed to dress myself, much less fight my own battles. I know that's kind of creepy sounding, but it's true. And isn't that how you feel as well? Isn't that how everyone feels? That aside, this _behavior_ of mine leads to me not having too many friends here. All I have are Mario, Luigi, Zelda and Snake. Mario's just in it for me, Luigi's in it because he wants to do the same as Mario, Zelda is kind of my polar opposite and Snake is just my jackass drinking buddy. So please. I _beg_ of you. Don't let me lose this chance at a new friend. Don't let my past self ruin any friendship that we may form. Please."

Blaze didn't know how to react. This was the girl who had hurt many, crushed many in her wake. The girl who, from the moment she first spoke, labeled people. Granted, she was actually quite the good judge of character, it was hard to admit. After all, the two had quarreled for two months now, and suddenly Peach wanted to become friends. Fat chance.

"And before you say 'fat chance' or something like that," Peach said, "you have my word as a princess that I won't try to hurt you anymore. Just let the past go. Please."

As selfish as it sounded, it broke the proverbial camel's back.

"Okay. But only as long as we can treat each other as equals. So, friend, breakfast?"

"It would be my pleasure."

And so, two new friends walked off towards the Dorm One building. A sudden friendship, it seemed sturdy enough. Perhaps they could be friends. Blaze had never thought of that before. And yet now she was walking to go eat with her worst enemy. Or frenemy? Best enemy?

"No, worst friend."

"Blaze, what are you talking to yourself about?"

"Oh, nothing. Just nonsense."

Nah, worst friend was too demeaning. Oh well. It was something she could spend pondering later. The two had spent an hour before they reached the actual dorm. An hour to sit down at the fountain, be surprised by your enemy and transform her into a friend. An acquaintance was closer to the truth.

When they had taken a seat, the room was packed. There was only one table left. They just had old fashioned scrambled eggs. A normal start to a normal day. Or so they thought.

"Hey," Peach said, poking her eggs with a fork, "the eggs are all cooked into heart shapes. Oh, yea! There's a V-Day party goin' on tonight! I should bring Mario. Blaze, who are you going to bring?"

"Tch. Why should I bring anyone? Why should I even go?"

"Okay, okay. No need to get touchy."

"Sorry, I just don't mix well with girly parties and such things."

"Hm. I can sort of understand that – but for the sake of normalcy, I'm gonna go."

"Hm. I already have plans, anyways."

"Like sleeping?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend you, but you practiced with Lyndis all night two days in a row, so I thought you might have been tired."

"I suppose. How did you-"

"Know about the practice matches? I handle all of the papers concerning battles for Master, so I know how often people fight and when."

"Cool. Well, talking about sleeping has made me...sleepy." Blaze let out a yawn, "I think I'll go take that nap. Could you do me a favor and wake me up in a few hours?"

"Oh, sure. Your dorm room is like, number three in Dorm One, right? I'll wake you up a little before I leave for the party."

"I said, I'm not going!" Blaze said as she exited the lounge.

"Just something to think about!" Peach yelled back, hoping the cat would hear her.

_God, _the Mushroom Princess thought to herself, _I've been such a bitch to her and everyone else. I hope she'll give me a chance. Then, just maybe, I'll be able to have real friends...not just Mario and the others. Zelda's the closest thing I have to a best friend. Maybe I should talk to her more often._

Blaze lazily stretched out on her bed as she kicked her boots off and finished putting on her pale yellow sleeping t-shirt in replacement of her princess clothing. She let out a sigh and pushed her face into her pillow. Beds felt at least five times as soft as she remembered. She didn't have trouble going to sleep, even though the noon sun shone brightly through the window. The warm sun and the fluffy bed...this was heaven on Mobius. Or whatever the hell this planet was called. The cat succumbed to the abyssal darkness awaiting her. Sweet, blissful darkness. Or so she had hoped for.

The room was bright, so the two strangers had no trouble infiltrating Blaze's room. No darkness to navigate, nothing to trip on. The first man put his hand to his head and spoke.

"I do not wish to do this. It is only your will, not mine."

"Yes," the shadowy figure beside him said, "but this is the only way. After the vampire joined the Ferr, we have lost all hope of defeating them. Unless, of course, we had just a little more insight."

The man stayed silent. His long, wavy, raven-black hair was in sharp contrast to his lighter skin. He had a very memorable face – eyes the color of the summer sky, a red cross tattooed across his forehead. He shuffled to the other side of the room in order to get nearer to the bed. His white clothing was an oddity as well. Purest white everywhere, except for on the back of his coat. There was a crimson insignia not unlike a bat sewn into it. He placed his hand on Blaze's forehead.

"Are you sure this is the only way?" he asked his superior, "After Mari, I don't feel comfortable in another mortal body. What if...what if she turns out the same way as Mari?"

"I know you feel guilty, but it was all the vampire. If he had not desired to drink the blood of humans, Mari would not have been his unfortunate victim. It is only important that you escaped in time. Now, do you have the caul?"

"Yes, in the bag I left on the floor. Ground white caul and a dagger especially designed to kill the bloodsucker."

"Good. Now you may begin. Remember, you need not possess her, only give her instructions. The way you shall instruct her is up to you."

The already shadowy figure dissipated, leaving the man behind.

"I apologize, young girl," he said, "but I'm afraid you...are the collateral damage. Please, make this easy. I do not wish for you to die as well. To suffer the same fate at the same hands."

He pushed hard against her head and the room glowed with a radiant white. When the light subsided, the man was no longer. The girl was all alone. Or was she?

Blaze's sleep had been peaceful thus far. The only dreams had concerned flying. Flying in the sky. A beautiful sky, with beautiful, fluffy clouds. Suddenly, the clouds cleared. All signs of land disappeared. All that was left was the blue. All blue. A voice echoed through the ocean of color.

"H..lo...I..Kre..ik...he.p...ou...friends...dea...kni...po..er...soak..."

The voice was low, so Blaze could hardly hear it. As it spoke, pictures flooded her mind. A short man, with white hair, skin black as charcoal and eyes of a dirty yellow color. Her friends. This man again, smiling. Friends again. Dead. Bloody and dead. No, not even bloody. Their bodies had very visible slashes and cuts, but no blood seeped from the wounds. It was as if they had no blood. A knife. A bag full of white powder. The knife with white powder on it, sticking to it like glue. Stab the bad man. Stab. Stab. The bad man turns to ashes. Blackest of ashes. Gone, forever.

When Blaze woke up, she felt a tingling in her head, like a headache that just went away. She gasped for air.

"What type of sick nightmare was that?" Blaze exclaimed.

"Oh," Peach said, sticking her head through the door, "I guess you woke up without my help. What nightmare?"

Blaze quickly explained the nightmare to the princess.

"Knife? Bag? Like the ones laying on the floor there?"

Blaze's eyes lit up as she spotted those very objects in the corner of the room. She knelt down beside them and held them up.

"What...what...what the hell...? How did these get here? They were in my dream-nightmare thing..."

"I don't know, but this is kind of creepy. Like a Primerian horror flick I saw at auditorium yesterday. It dealt with nightmares mixing with real life, too."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how'd it end?"

"Just about everyone died. Supposedly they killed the monster behind it, but he comes back in like, seven more movies, so I'll guess that didn't last long."

"Thanks a lot. Thanks a friggin' lot. That helps."

"Well, you're welcome. Your friggin' welcome. I'm gonna go and get Mario for the party. See ya soon."

Peach left the Mobian all alone, and Blaze let out a heavy sigh.

_I know something's in my head. Whatever or whoever you are, you wouldn't mind leaving, would you?_

When she got no answer, she decided to ignore the familiar feeling of someone tapping into her brain and followed Peach out the door. The clock had read about seven, so she had only an hour 'til she had to meet with Mewtwo for God knows what. Enough time to meet up with Lyn for a nice dinner. Or maybe not. By now, Lyn might have eaten and Mewtwo might be planning something food-related. What to do then?

Suddenly, a loud banging sound erupted from the back of the dorm. She circled around and was surprised to almost be stabbed by a familiar Chaos Spear. There, behind the dorm, was Shadow and a strange creature which looked like a red starfish with an eye in the center. It deftly dodged every Spear but a few, those of which simply bounced off of it.

_What is that thing?_ Blaze thought, almost exclaiming it aloud.

_It's called a Decarabia. It's a type of fire demon, and your friend will get nowhere simply stabbing at it's shell._

_ Hah! I knew there was some bastard in my head! Who are you and what are you doing there?_

_ That does not matter. Blaze, help him out. If the demon's back is turned, it will expose it's blue underbelly. If he stabs that, then it will die very quickly._

_ Fine, but you have to explain yourself, whoever the hell you are._

_ All in good time._

Blaze rushed out into the battle and flung a fireball at the Decarabia.

"Take that, you damn starfish!"

The second it made contact, the starfish began to spin uncontrollably. While doing that, Blaze saw that the front was covered in crimson shell, but the back was covered in fleshy blue. The Decarabia looked straight at Blaze. Her fireball had been cut in fifths and each arm now grasped a piece. The demon launched five beams of fire at Blaze, which she narrowly dodged.

_It can reflect fire?_

_ Of course. Many fire demons can._

_ Sh-shut up!_

However, this had given Shadow the perfect opportunity to Spear the Decarabia, which he did. The Chaos Spear had stick straight through the center and right out through the eye. The demon vanished in a blue blur.

"What the hell was that?" Shadow exclaimed.

"Long story." Blaze said, leading Shadow back to his own dorm.

_All right, Shadow's safe. Now, let's talk._

Silence.

_Hello? Mr. Voice in my head?_

More silence.

_Fine. Be that way. I can bug you forever._

_ No, you can't. You only have a few minutes. Check the clock, Blaze. What about your date?_

_ Date? I don't have a date! If you mean Mewtwo, it's only...seven fifty?_

_ Yes. Time passes rather quickly during a battle, doesn't it? One of the horrors of war._

_ Whatever. How did you know I have a...meeting...with Mewtwo?_

_ Our minds are one. You only have trouble connecting to mine._

_ I'm not gonna ask._ Blaze thought to the stranger as she ran for Dorm Four. It was rather far, but that didn't matter much. Blaze could run fast, so it wasn't a problem. Within a minute or two, she was there. Mewtwo was leaning up against a wall, arms crossed.

"Well," he said with a small grin, "it took you long enough to get here. Not that I mind, of course."

"Thanks. So, what is it we'll be wasting time doing?"

"Well, are you feeling hungry? I decided that we might as well eat if we're going to miss out on a party. I know you don't like all the girly stuff, so I tried to keep it simple. I hope you don't mind."

"No! Of course not!"

"Excellent. Then...shall we start?"

After Blaze gave a nod, Mewtwo gently grabbed her by the arm. After a bright flash of light, they were in a room, dark but lighted by candles.

_Hm... _the stranger in Blaze's head thought, _so it is a date._

_ No, it's not a firggin' date! It's just a fancy dinner._

_ Call it what you wish._

_ Good. Now shut up until I'm done. Despite what you may think, this is my body and I won't have anyone screwing up my life. Especially assholes that like to meld their mind with mine._

_ You don't seem surprised by the concept._

_ I'm not. This guy sitting across the table from us – from _me_ – is a psychic. I'm perfectly used to any mumbo-jumbo you can dish out. _

_ Like-_

Blaze mentally shut the guy off, something she learned how to do over the last couple of weeks. It wasn't going to last, but jut this nice little peace was something that made her rather happy.

_Still, _she thought to herself after shutting the stranger off, _it's sort of creepy. Someone in my mind. Maybe I should talk to Mewtwo about it. Or maybe not. Why are decisions always so hard? Damn..._

END~

**Again, a rather sudden ending. Sorry that this wasn't as full as action as I had hoped to make it, but I kept dragging things out. The inevitable result: reaching my 5-7 page limit. Oh well – you'll get more on this later. Anyways: I don't own anyone but Khlua. Even Decarabia and the strangers. I don't own them. I do however, own the name they used when they referred to the faction – Ferr. I don't even own this Mari person. Also, the stranger-mind-infiltrator and Decarabia are from the same game as the kidnapper-vampire-freak. And more shall come from this game. See ya, I'll post the next one as soon as I can – I discovered a way around the laptop problems I've been having, so I can work slightly faster now.**


	11. A Caged Bird of Prey

**Okay, I am _so_ sorry about last chapter. For all you action fans, I'm sorry that I missed a lot of fighting and ended it on a romantic note – for all you drama fans, sorry the ending was rushed – for all you comedy fans, sorry it was overly dramatic. And sorry that I'll be pulling something else on you all – again, this will not be held at a main character's point of view. It will be held at someone else's. Ish. It'll switch mid-chapter. Oh well. Starting the eleventh chapter, if you don't mind.**

Chapter – 11

A Caged Bird of Prey

Just another day at work. Or so Tear had wished. Ever since Lucario and the others had told her of the Ferr's truer face, she had been on edge. She had to leave the intruders at the base where she had brought them, but she was free to go wherever she wanted. And as a sergeant, she had only one place to go.

Back to HQ.

Tear would have to make a report to the higher-ups at some point. Whether or not she had to report the truth though...that was debatable. She couldn't tell the general the truth. What would she say?

_Yes, sir! We have indeed captured the intruders. Oh, by the way, they told us about what kind of a bloodthirsty group of terrorists we're working with, so please wait as we plot how to kill you behind your back._

_Rich, Tear. That'll show'em. _

Instead, it would be better if she just gave the usual report.

_No, sir, we have not spotted any intruders thus far. There is no sign of Lieutenant Shara returning yet. No, sir, we didn't find any pink teddy bears. Why? No, sir, I am not questioning your sexuality._

_Dammit, Tear! Why do you always end up doing that?_

Oh well. Whether the general was creepy or not didn't matter. After all, there were much more pressing matters. Like the rescue of the prisoner.

_If the Ferr is a lie, _she thought to herself, _then what's the X-Gem all about? Why create such an elaborate lie if your only motive is to keep Khlua away from the tournament? What would be the benefits, anyways? I don't understand..._

It hurt to not know something right in front of her. She was always regarded as being _so_ smart, but she couldn't figure this out. She just kept walking through the halls.

The walls of HQ hallways were always beautifully polished so that the marble reflected the light of the torches that lit the hall. It was always kept dark in HQ. Supposedly the general liked it better that way. That and all of the generals' identities were kept secret unless you just happened to hear it by chance. And you never spoke it. Doing so could get you executed, as Tear had seen so many times before.

Finally, she reached the obsidian gates of the general. The general she served. The worst of them all. Nicknamed "Bloodsucker," he was sadistic in both battle and speech. One time, when someone was insubordinate to him, he pulled out his whole nervous system – besides his brain, of course – through his index finger's tip. It looked kind of painful, to say the least. The privates and corporals were almost worse off – they had to clean up after it.

The gates opened by themselves, as they always do, and Tear walked in. The smell of the room was overpowering – like copper mixed with dust. She recognized it, and her sense of smell mixed with her taste and she wanted to vomit because of its potency. This was the smell of blood.

"So," a shrill voice echoed out from the darkness, which was to prevent her from seeing him, "what news do you bring me, Sergeant Grants? Or must I kill you too?"

_Too?_

Then she smelled something else – the smell of a freshly killed and mutilated corpse.

_No...it must have been an animal of some kind._

"No, sir, I have my report. We have not seen nor heard any intruders, and the Lieutenant has yet to be found. However, I do bear some good news."

"Oh? And please, tell me the news."

"Sergeant Branford says that the, er...extraction process is going very well. To our estimations, we won't be needing Khlua soon. After a few more days, he can leave and go back to-"

"Speak no more, girl," he hissed, "the good leader has decided that I, of all the generals, are in charge of our prisons and all the toys – I mean, people – within them. I'll say when he leaves."

"I'm afraid I don't...quite understand."

"Oh, why not? We're going to play a nice little game with him." he giggled almost maniacally, but that was normal for him, "In fact, why don't we introduce him to the sandbox? Oh, won't he be so much fun to play with? I wonder what his screams sound like...Grants! Fetch Nebiros – you should let him know that little Cerberus has a new toy to play with. I'm sure the two of them will be delighted to hear! Hmhmhmha..."

"Sir! That's a person we're talking about! The coliseum is only for traitors, not prisoners! That's inhumane!"

"Who said I was human? Now then, wench, go get Nebiros. Tell him about the newest of Cerberus's meals. Oh, and make sure the toy is well charged – I mean...fed – after all, it wouldn't be much fun if he simply died on the spot, now would it?"

"No...sir. I'll go get Nebiros."

"Good girl. You go do that."

Tear walked shakily out the doors, which promptly closed behind her. Just then, she released a breath she just realized she had been holding in. She felt like her legs were made of lead and Jello at the same time. How could she have been so blind? With a general like this, how could the Ferr's cause be just? Focus. Focus. Focus.

The general called the coliseum his sandbox. It fit a delusional sadist, so it wasn't surprising. Still though, he fed traitors and failures to Cerberus, the demon hound that he put in the sandbox. Despite popular and_ true _texts, this "Cerberus" had only one head. It did, however, have a serpentine tail. It didn't have three heads, but scored three points on the epic meter. Still though, it had so far killed everything coming its way. The thought of having Khlua fed to the hound was quite unsettling.

Tear finally found herself right outside the prison gate. The corridors all looked the same, so she was somewhat surprised that she had gotten there so quickly while wandering. Must be lucky. Or not.

As she opened the doors, she saw a red, demonic figure adjusting the chains holding up the prisoner. Khlua was about four feet off the ground with his paws shackled together and sloppily nailed to the ceiling. The figure was quite tall, maybe six feet, and was red in color, except for the underside of his tail, which was yellow-tan. He also wore a...thing...on his head which made him look like he had horns. It sort of blocked his smooth black hair, which is probably more complimenting than a pair of horns.

"Belial," Tear hissed, "what are you doing here? You know that only soldiers are allowed here."

He snarled, "Human." Belial only pretended to hate her – in fact, he seemed rather fond of her. In a sickening, pet-like way.

Tear sighed, "Yea. What _are_ you doing down here?"

"Tightening the chains – we wouldn't want him to break free, would we?"

"Of course not. But you're 'tightening' them the wrong way."

The demon was loosening the chains.

"Do it yourself, then." he scoffed.

She walked up to Khlua, gave him an understanding glance and loosened the chains some more. Afterwards, she and Belial exchanged quick signs of approval, hers a wink and his a thumbs-up.

"Oh, yea." she said, remembering her job, "Can you tell Nebiros that the general has a...playdate?"

The soldiers under the Bloodsucker often referred to his games as playdates.

"Why can't you do _that _yourself as well?"

"Well...you two are like brothers to each other. You should be able to find him better."

"Hm. Fine. I shall do it, if it pleases you so. If he will have a playdate, does that mean that little Alice will have a new friend soon?"

"Hopefully not..."

The two glanced at Khlua with sorrowful looks. The Primerian stared at the ground darkly like he had done for however long he had been there.

Belial left the room, trying not to appear anything less then mopey – that's how the Ferr liked its employees. After a bit of silence, Tear spoke to Khlua.

"Khlua," she said, "there's something you should know. Your friends are coming."

He rose his head up quickly but still didn't appear quite convinced.

"How do I know you aren't lying to me? To trick me somehow?"

"Why would we trick you if we already _had_ you? Fortunately, they should probably meet up with you within a day or two."

"Meet up with me?"

"Yes. We loosened the chains. Choose the most opportune time to rip yourself from the wall and run as far as you can."

"The building is labyrinthine. How can I escape?"

"Find a soldier that you think you can trust and convince them to help you out. They've all been mentally enhanced to randomly choose tunnels that lead straight to where they want to go. Anyways, escape as discreetly as possible and make it look like you just finally decided to bust loose and that you could have the whole time."

"No problem; I already could've."

"Wait, what?"

"I could have broken loose any time, but I don't know the area well. I've recently been aura-scanning it to find an escape route."

_Damn. This dog plans for everything._

"Either way, it would help if you had one of us with you."

"Why can't you go?"

"Well...I've tried to rebel against my superiors before...it didn't work out quite as well as I had thought."

"Oh, well. I'll wait for Branford."

"I would normally applaud that choice, but now you shouldn't pick her. The Bloodsucker has her under some sort of spell. She does whatever he wants her to."

"I have a feeling I don't have to worry about that."

Khlua smirked, and Tear couldn't help but laugh. This was going rather smoothly. But that's because she was involved. So far, every prison break she's done in Kimlasca and Malkuth and such had succeeded. Her plan in this world would work just as well. As long as Khlua didn't make a rash choice.

"Are you sure your superiors wouldn't hear about this?" asked Khlua.

"No. I've gotten some things that will remove me from suspicion."

Tear quickly nodded and exited the room just to see three more people.

"Nebiros," she said, "I see you have Cerberus with you."

"Yes." he said with satisfaction. Unlike his red counterpart, Nebiros was quite pale and wore a red shroud, covering _most_ of his body.

"Uncle Black," the girl to Nebiros's right said, "if Cerberus is going to the sandbox, does that mean that I'll have a new friend soon?"

"Most likely. He will most definitely when it's his time, but Belial tells me that it isn't _quite_ time yet, Alice."

Alice was a peculiar girl. Probably because she was dead. In life, Alice had supposedly been quite the sadistic girl, but she attracted monsters of all sorts – fairies, beasts, demons and dragons, to name a few. When she died, Belial and Nebiros, her Uncles Red and Black, respectively, were put in charge of her. They cared for her like a daughter, but she wasn't a normal girl. Instead of asking for money to buy dolls, she asked if her Uncle Black (Nebiros) could sic Cerberus on someone so she would have a new "friend." Apparently it wasn't enough to have two, no, three _things_ at her command, she also wanted fellow ghosts to be her friends.

Even more peculiar was the demon hound Nebiros had on a leash. Cerberus. But with only one head. Yay. He was still sort of cute, Tear had to admit. Any dog could be cute if it could shoot fire out of its mouth.

That didn't matter, now. Tear had to get back to Lucario and the others and tell them about this. Finally – this could all be over and life could go back to normal. Or as normal as life _could_ be.

Khlua~

All day, Khlua had amused himself by noticing what video games the Ferr's soldiers were from. Mys_**tear**_ica Grants, Tales of the Abyss. Ritz, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Five Kritters, each from Donkey Kong. Belial, Megami Tensei. Terra Branford, Final Fantasy 5. Terra would be his ticket out of here. If she was doing whatever her superiors told her to without any realization, then he thought he knew exactly what that meant. It was a concept from the game, originally. Now if he could figure out how-

_Oh, three new ones. Let's see...Nebiros, Alice, Cerberus. All from Megami Tensei. God, I am good at this._

Alice waited at the door, glancing nonchalantly in Khlua's direction. She blinked, as if she didn't know exactly what she was looking at.

Meanwhile, Nebiros chained up a whining Cerberus to the wall. Obviously demon hounds don't like leashes. Soon afterwards, Nebiros and Alice left.

"Pft," Khlua heard Cerberus say, "love you, too. Jerks."

"Whoa, did you talk?"

"Wait, what? Did _you_ just talk? I'm not used to eating things that can talk to me."

"Eating...?"

"Uh, yea."

_Okay, maybe I'm missing a piece of the picture...the Ferr needs me...so they're gonna feed me to this thing...why?_

"Hey," Cerberus said, scratching his ear with his hind leg, "it's not like it's my choice. It's all I ever get to eat."

"So...they only feed you living people?"

"Yea. Personally, I don't like it. But what am I gonna do – break out?"

_Oh, you have no idea._

"Well, _Cerberus_, if I told you that if I could get you out, what would you do?"

"I could start by not eating you."

"That would be nice."

"Thank you, I've never been told that I was a nice person before."

"Yes, but anything else, maybe?"

"Why? It's not like you could escape, anyways. But...I could help you to get far, I guess."

"Good."

"What?"

"Never mind."

_All right – we have a means to escape, a means to get out and a means to get back to the guys. Now, then. We just need the most important part._

The good sergeant arrived at breakfast, lunch and dinner to give Khlua food. Because of his state, though, he was unable to feed himself. Thusly, she needed to feed him, which he had no qualms with, although it was incredibly demeaning. This required her getting close, which would certainly help him to engage his plan. Now he just needed time to be on his side.

And it was. It was dinner time, so just a few minutes later, a young woman walked out monotonously with a plate of...ugh.

The woman had blond or green hair – it was hard to tell with the darkness – tied back into a short ponytail and wore a red shirt with a floral pattern, a light red cape like thing and white stockings with a similar floral print. But what he was looking for was on top of her head. A makeshift crown made of wood. The infamous Slave Crown of Final Fantasy 5.

She soundlessly advanced, bowl in hand.

_Just...a bit...closer...now...!_

As she got close enough for him to be able to touch her, Khlua ripped the chains from the wall and launched a kick at the girl. He purposely missed the first time, intending only to surprise her. Although she made no sound or facial expression, it was obvious she had been caught off guard.

She turned to launch a kick back at him, but he ducked under her leg and kicked the other out from beneath her. She landed on the floor with a thud and Khlua put his foot down on her stomach, hoping that would be enough for her to not escape. He leaned over and carefully pulled off the wooden crown.

The effect was immediate. Her previously glassy eyes became clear and bright, showing a flood of emotions. Khlua stepped off.

First, she got up and looked around. Her eyes appeared both horrified and happy at the same time. Happy to finally be in control, horrified of what she had done when she wasn't.

She fell back down onto her knees and looked down at the ground, "Kill me." she said, a pleading tone in her voice, "Kill me now."

Khlua was confused, "Uh...no. I'm afraid the movie doesn't end like that. Why would you want that, anyways?"

"You have no idea what I've done...he...I killed so many people...and besides...the Ferr is your enemy, right? You'd be doing yourself a favor if you killed me. You'd be helping your friends too..."

"Tch. Normally I would say something like 'That's messed up,' or 'you were in trouble so I helped you,' but, I'm the one that needs your help."

"My...help?"

"Yes, your help. Sheesh, when I try to get my favorite character to help, she asks me to kill her...not exactly how I'd like to spend my weekend. It _is_ the weekend, right? Anyways, I hear you can get me out of here." she nodded, "Good. Now, take me out of this place and you can consider yourself forgiven. Happy?"

"Y-yes. You know...you remind me of someone else I know...but I can't seem to remember him..."

"Oh, well. Let's go!"

They were about to leave until a loud bark could be heard from behind them.

"Hey!" Cerberus yelped, "Help me, too!"

Khlua gave himself a face-palm, "Dammit, Cerberus! That was starting to be a touchy moment. Oh, well. I guess you can come along...but be good little puppy, okay?"

The sergeant laughed, "You speak to it as if it were a person..."

"Hey, I can talk!" the hell hound barked, "You just don't know it."

"Shut up and let's get out of here." Khlua growled, snapping Cerberus's iron chain from the wall. It broke with a satisfying snap, and Khlua held onto it.

"Well, break off the rest." Cerberus urged.

"No way." Khlua said, shaking his head, "I'll do that when you're done doing what you said you'd do."

Cerberus whined.

"Khlua," Terra said hurriedly, "it's time to go."

He nodded and ran through the halls, following Terra wherever she chose to go. Cerberus kept up with them well, too. Khlua by himself could probably have sped through the building at around forty miles per hour, but doing so for too long would leave him pooped. Thus, the demon dog.

_Everything's going so perfectly!_ Khlua thought to himself, _As long as nothing goes wrong, I can go back to the mansion! Oh, wait...I never thought about being _at_ the mansion. I wonder if everything'll go back to the way it was...I hope it can..._

"Khlua," Terra said, gasping for breath after running so far, "you don't need me anymore. The entrance is right there – run as far as you can."

Khlua nodded and smiled. "But what about you?" he asked, "Won't the Ferr find it strange at all that you aren't wearing that..._thing_ anymore?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll live – I won't vanish."

Khlua smiled again. Then, he turned toward the exit.

"C'mon, Cerberus," he said, "let's go."

"It's about damn time!"

Khlua climbed onto Cerberus's back, unsure. It was kind of like riding a horse, but he was sure he didn't how to ride a dog. It came to him quickly, though – hold on for your freaking life! Cerberus moved in leaps and bounds – his paws only touched the ground every thirty or so yards. It was more like flying than anything else. Khlua almost fell off multiple times. The world outside of the building was far worse than it was outside, though. It was horridly cold. The HQ was built into the side of a freaking glacier!

That aside, Cerberus glided over the snow and ice, running straight through the bladed blizzard. The snow cut into Khlua's flesh and he held on tighter.

_Don't give up,_ he thought, _just keep moving! Everything will be fine..._

The demon dog seemed to be having a much tougher time, though. Cerberus represented fire and darkness. Fitting for a guardian of the Underworld, but not for flying through snowstorms. With each jump, his muscles ached, his body burned and his lungs felt as though they would give out any time.

_If this...thing weren't on my back,_ the dog thought, _I would be far from here in no time. But where would I go? Oh, well. I can't do anything about it._

He flinched as a larger shard of ice sliced into his face. He closed his eyes and went on.

Khlua realized how much Cerberus was going through. It didn't feel right, but Khlua had to take advantage of anything he could. Including Cerberus.

After a long while, Khlua wondered how far the next building was. Tear had said they would make it there in a day or two, but could it really take that long? He shuddered at the thought of having to go through a whole day of this torture.

Over the roar of the blizzard, Khlua yelled, "Cerberus! There's a small cave over to your left! It's far away, but if we make it that far, we can wait in there until the storm dies down."

"Gotcha!" Cerberus said, nodding and making a small turn to the cave. Within a minute or two, they found themselves in the gentle quiet of a small granite cave.

Khlua sighed, "Eighty miles per hour and we still weren't quite there...it's not like we could see anywhere, anyways."

"Well," the hound said, "if we can't see anything, then for all we know, your 'friends' are just next door."

"Yea, right. Do you realize what the chances of that are? Besides, that would be rather anti-climactic."

"I guess."

Just after Khlua found a nice spot to rest against the wall, a loud sound could be heard outside.

Cerberus's muzzle immediately tilted upwards.

"Damn," the hound cursed, "they've found us."

"How can you tell?"

"Because that, my friend, was a Wendigo. An ice demon."

"Your leader must be a _huge_ fan of the Megami Tensei franchise, then."

"What? Oh well, that doesn't matter. What _does_ matter is that we get prepared; Wendigo are fast on their feet, although you wouldn't think so. They're smart, too. They can mimic voices and make strategies like a human."

"If they're ice demons, breath fire at them. That would melt them or something, right?"

"Not quite."

Another roar was heard, this time, even closer.

Khlua stepped forward, slipping out his aura blades.

"Come and get us!" he yelled out, which was replied to with a roar.

Presea~

"Presea," Lucario said with a sigh, "staring out the window won't make the storm end any quicker."

"I know," the girl said, "but I just keep hoping that I'll see Khlua through it. I'm really worried. Tear said it would take a long time, but I'm scared."

"Good. That's what a normal person would say."

"Are you suggesting I'm not normal?" Presea asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Of course not. Just that-"

Lucario was cut off by a loud roar outside, which was followed by banging at the door.

"Open up, dammit!" it was Lightning, "There are monsters outside – they seem to be looking for something."

Presea picked her head up, "Could they be looking for...?" she ran from the window, hauled her ax off the wall, which it had been leaning on, and almost tore the door off its hinges. She dashed into the hall, Lightning, and soon Lucario behind her.

They didn't have to worry about any enemies inside, according to Tear. Although this building was, in fact, a Ferr base, very few people lived here and they were normally in the basement all day, doing scientific research.

Soon, the three arrived outside, looking out into the snow. Very little could be seen – the "monsters" Lightning spoke of were invisible in the ice.

"Lightning," Lucario said, "I-"

A loud thump could be heard as the Pokemon took a blow to the chest and flew back.

Presea let out a gasp as the same thing happened to Lightning. Both were knocked out almost instantly by the white blur of ice and snow.

She steeled herself, getting ready for whatever it was that had just attacked.

She didn't have to wait too long, though. Before soon, a large, snarling beast lunged at her. She hit it with the blunt side of her ax, effectively knocking it out.

She leaned over to examine it. It was roughly six and a half feet tall, covered in white fur. It had deer-like horns and piercing red eyes. She had bashed its face in good with that blow – it was surprising that the beast even survived it.

Ignoring the creature, Presea turned around to see Lucario come to.

"Damn," he muttered, holding his head, "he came out of nowhere..."

"Are you all right? I think Lightning here might be out for a bit longer. Take her back inside. Get the others. I have the feeling that more will come."

"Gotcha." he said, offering a slight nod.

He picked the woman up, balancing her on his shoulder. As he retreated back inside, Presea slowly backed in after him, guarding in case any other monsters attacked. She closed the door on her way in. She let out a deep breath and waited for more people to show up. Lucario came back with Amaterasu and Charizard.

"Everyone else is on guard in case something else happens." he explained.

She nodded. The only way to calculate how many were left was to go out there and see if Ammy could do something with those goddess powers of hers.

"Come." she urged the others, and they followed her into the snow.

While outside, many complaints could be heard. Ammy had checked with some ice power and seen that there were plenty of the creatures left. Most of them were gathered in one area, which meant something was going on.

"I'm cold, let's pick up the pace!" Charizard grumbled.

"I don't get why you're complaining so much," Ammy said, "after all, Luca over there is just fine. Besides, you have a _fire_ burning on your tail."

"That doesn't stop me from being cold. And he has fur, like you. The only person worse off than me is Presea over there. Who is wearing_ a sleeveless shirt and not much else_."

"Well," Presea defended, "I...I just don't h-have any m-more clothes..."

"Prez, you've got the chills." Lucario scolded.

"I-I j-j-just...I'll b-be okay..."

After her explanation, there wasn't much speaking for a while. Occasionally Charizard whined about the cold again, but otherwise, it was silent until they reached the cave.

Khlua~

"Dammit!" Khlua cursed, ripping his Soulcutter out of yet another Wendigo, "When do they stop?"

"They're ice demons, we're in a blizzard!" Cerberus yelled back , "If you let one leave alive, the ice will actually _heal_ it!"

"That would have been – hmrf!" Khlua grunted as a Wendigo punched him in the gut, only receiving a Soulcutter across the throat as response, " – useful information, Cerby."

Ignoring the nickname, Cerberus lit a small group of demons on fire and slapped another with his tail. The monsters kept coming – no matter they did, the Wendigos seemed to be multiplying.

Finally, it seemed like the demons were retreating. Khlua let out a sigh of relief, glad that he could rest for a bit. He released his Soulcutter and fell down on his rear.

A newer sound was heard. A scream. A familiar scream.

Khlua's ears perked straight up and he ran out of the cave.

"Hey!" Cerberus barked, "They can mimic...oh, forget it. Get yourself killed, for all I care."

"Presea!" Khlua exclaimed, his heart beating faster.

_Where is she? I can't see anything..._

He calmed himself down and closed his eyes. He could see faint flickers of aura through the blizzard. He opened his eyes and ran into battle.

Presea breathed harder. It was hard to fend off the monsters in a blizzard when you wore an outfit as light as hers. Even so, she heaved her ax at another creature. This time, she chopped it in half, and like the others, it vanished before blood could spill.

_Monsters that clean up after themselves, huh?_

The monster had caught her off guard, and now she was separated from the rest of the group. They were probably in the cave, already. She hoped that they hadn't walked into this icy hell for nothing.

Suddenly, she saw a figure running to her through the storm. Assuming it was a monster, she raised her ax and got ready for it to strike. But as the shape of the being became clearer, she lowered her weapon.

_Is it...?_

"Presea!" Khlua exclaimed again, this time twice as excited. She was okay. But where were the others?

"K-Khlua! There y-you are..."

"Are you okay? You like sick..."

"I'm okay. Just a little cold. B-but how are you? Are y-you o-okay?"

"Yea...Presea, come this way. Let's get you inside."

"A-all right..."

At first, she found it hard to make it through the snow, but Khlua extended his arm behind his back and grasped her hand. She picked up her pace, walking side by side with Khlua.

"I'm sorry f-f-for troubling you..."

"Don't apologize; it's not your fault. Besides, I don't mind."

Presea smiled, but it was short lived. They soon found themselves outside of a very menacing looking cave. Khlua motioned for Presea to enter, so she did.

Inside was much warmer. Lucario, Cerberus, Amaterasu and Charizard were already seated around a fire. When he saw the two, Lucario grinned.

"Hey, you two!" he said, "You guys took a while to get here."

"Something you wanna tell us?" Charizard asked, grinning wickedly.

"No!" the two exclaimed in unison. When they realized they spoke at the same time, they glanced at each other and shared a weak smile. They both sat down on either side of the fire.

"Well," Lucario said, "the...Wendigos, I think you called them?" Cerberus nodded, "The Wendigos have retreated and they don't seem to be coming back any time soon. The storm is still hell, though, and we're all tired and bloody from our battles. I think we should just rest and return in the morning. However, all food, blankets and tents are still in the Ferr base, so we'll have to go without for now. Good night, all."

He turned around and curled up into a ball, probably an attempt to sleep. Everybody else went into some little corner and did the same. Khlua was about to, but then he heard Presea's teeth chattering. He pulled up next to her and wrapped his arm and tail around her.

"Good night, Presea." he said softly.

"Good...night..."

Presea was asleep almost instantly, and Khlua then realized he had _no _idea what to do.

_Uh...should I just...wait here? It would be rude to just slip out from underneath and have her sleep against the rock...I guess I'll just do the same._

He leaned his head against Presea's and closed his eyes.

END~

**Yay! A long chapter! Dammit, I wanted to get to this part for a LOOOOONG time. I was tired of Khlua being in a cell...;n;**

**But, anyways...I hope you liked this chapter. It was long, but it was worth it. Also...I have some bad news. I'm going on hiatus starting June 5th. That's about when my Summer starts, so I'm going to have to not type from there to the 15th. Starting there, I'll be able to type, but I won't be able to post. But, hey. I'll have a long three weeks to whip up some Rumble-y goodness. You should expect multiple chapters when I return. 'Til then.**


	12. Her Greatest Fear

**Heh, sorry about the hiatus and all, I just had to go to a place with zero Wi-Fi. I mean, I could steal it from a gas station...but that wouldn't be as convenient. :D Anyways, I have a feeling this will be a longer chapter, so I'll get to it right now.**

Chapter 12 – Her Greatest Fear

Presea had gotten up before everyone else, as usual. But by the time she had finished getting all of her stuff together, the others were awake, as well. Cerberus had decided to leave the cave early, so that he could rid the ground of any glaze ice. It would prove useful, after the blizzard that occurred the last night.

"Hey," Khlua asked, waving his paw in front of Presea's face, "you okay? Still with us?"

"O-of course. I was just thinking..." Presea answered.

"Oh. What about?"

"Well, I just think that maybe...if I hadn't, um...stopped you on the first day we were here...or if you hadn't met me and the others...then maybe we wouldn't all be here right now."

The thought was met with absolute silence.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," Charizard said, as an attempt to break the silence, "but I'm hungry. Does anyone have any food?"

"Yea," Lucario said, "I packed a lot in the rucksack over there. I think it's about time for breakfast, anyways."

Lucario ducked behind a rock and came back up, bearing a small sack that was filled to the top with large blue fruits.

"Aw," Charizard sighed, "you only brought _Oran_ berries, huh?"

"What's wrong with Oran? They're cheap and they don't taste bad, per se..."

"Wow," Ammy said, surprised, "I never thought that you'd be such a miser, Luca. Skipping out on Pecha for the extra 'Poke'..."

"Sh-shut up."

Khlua looked at them, puzzled, and picked one up. He took a bite, and blue juice squirted everywhere.

"Ick..." he said, spitting it out, "it's not bad...but whenever I take a bite, I can't get over the feeling that I'm eating a giant bug."

"Ew! Khlua!" Ammy exclaimed, "Now I can't even look at those berries without throwing up! Let's eat something else."

Lucario dug deeper into the bag and pulled out a few small yellow cakes.

"Uh..." Lucario said, careful of his word choice, "these are those...'curry cakes,' right, Prez? Are...they edible?"

Presea proudly announced, "Well, Khlua liked them, so I suppose they aren't bad."

"I guess we can trust you..."

"Gimme!" Khlua exclaimed, diving for a cake, grabbing one and rolling behind a rock. Soon, the sounds of nomming could be heard.

"Damn," Charizard said, "the 'lil guy sure is excited about eating just a little cake. Can they possibly be that good?"

The dragon picked up a cake in his claw and took a small bite of it. Suddenly, he tossed it up into the air.

"Ahh! Hot! Hot! Spicy!"

Lucario did the same, "Ack! It's hot!"

As the cakes were about to hit the ground, Khlua jumped forward and quickly caught them, eating them before he even reached the ground.

"W-wow." Ammy stuttered, bewildered, "He's like a ninja..."  
>"Hey," Lucario said, "don't go all Colette on us, now."<p>

"Er...okay."

Presea took a bite, "Well, they are a bit spicy. They still taste good, though."

"Yea," Ammy said, "you guys are wimps."

"I have no idea what you just said, Ammy, but I'll assume you like the food."

"That aside," Khlua said, coming back to the rest of the group, "what happened while I was gone? Not to sound selfish or anything, but...how many people worried?"

"Everyone, really." Lucario said back simply, "We all freaked out, of course, and so were the others. Eliwood sent out the Assist Trophies to check around the Mansion's area, even Peach was worried when she heard about all the blood that was spilled in your room."

"Why would she worry about that?"

"W-well it was blood. In _your_ room."

"I stabbed him."

"What?"

"I stabbed him in the arm. I did a good amount of damage, too. He couldn't move his arm until later that day."

"Ha! I knew you were no damsel in distress. But that aside, there was enough blood spilled to kill a person. How did he...?"

"Don't ask me. Maybe he's immortal?"

"That would be scary. What kind of stuff happened at the Ferr?"

"Heh. I just realized it sounds like 'what happened at the fair'...but anyways, not much happened. I spent about a month memorizing the paths in and out of the Ferr, but I gave up soon afterward. Eventually, two people expressed their determination to get me out. Mystearica Grants, of 'Tales of the Abyss,' and Belial, of the 'Megami Tensei' series."

"Tear and one of her friends, I guess."

"You met Tear?"

"Yea...it's a long story."

"The only reason she liked you," Charizard explained, "was because of your 'canine charm'."

"I-I can't help it if she doesn't like scaly things." Lucario said indignantly.

"Lucky bastard. I wish all the hot girls liked dragons, too."

"Uh, this isn't just about our situation anymore, is it?" Khlua asked, hiding slight worry behind a smirk.

The group ate in silence for a while.

"Hey," Presea asked, turning to see the cavern's entrance, "why is it so dark outside?"

"What?" Lucario exclaimed, leaping up and towards the entrance.

It was, indeed, very dark outside. The sky was black, tinged with crimson. The sky was cloudless and the atmosphere felt very cold, chilling to the bone.

"What the hell?" Lucario exclaimed, only for his words to echo back.

"Um, I don't think that's how nature works." Khlua said, observing the unnatural sky.

"Th-that's the first thing you think?"

"Yea...but what's causing it?"

"Well, someone seems calm and collected." Ammy said with a slight yawn.

"You're one to talk, little Miss Sun Goddess.. But I suppose I am a little reaction-less. That much time in a prison does that to a person."

"Hm. You do have a point. Well, we had better hurry. The others left already."

"Indeed."

They followed after the three others, who had rushed out a while ago.

"Khlua," Presea asked, "you're a Primerian; is there any 'game' with something like this?"

"I don't think so. But I could be..."

Presea waited for a second, hoping that Khlua would finish his sentence.

"Uh, Khlua? You okay there?"

She turned around, and she was surprised to see that there wasn't anyone there.

"Uh...Khlua? Luca? Ammy? Charizard? Hello?"

_Um...what just happened? Where'd they go?_

She scanned around again and yelled, "Guys! Anyone?"

_Okay, now I'm _really_ worried..._

She walked forward a few steps. It wasn't as cold as it had been yesterday. This cold was more a "creepy" cold instead of a real one. She continued, aimlessly. It wasn't like her problem would be solved if she just stood there, right? It was never that easy for her.

She paid careful attention to her surroundings. The crimson in the sky flowed like water – it spread outward from a source. That source was probably the reason it was so dark. And the reason everyone was gone.

As she continued, a feeling of doubt lodged itself into the back of her mind. Despair seemed to permeate through the air.

"Well," she muttered, "if this creepiness is getting worse, I'll assume that I'm getting close to the 'source'..."

She was getting close to a mountain range, now. All of the crimson streaks were streaming from...the tip of the mountain.

_Wha–...No! No! I am NOT climbing that mountain. No._

She walked closer to it, realizing that her lungs were hurting. She leaned against the mountain to catch her breath. Instead of hitting solid rock, she fell straight through it and hit her head on a tiled floor.

"Ow..."

_Ugh...I guess I should look before I lean, huh?_

She picked herself up and heaved her ax over her shoulder.

"All right, I know someone's in here! Now, you can come out and give me back my friends, or I can rip you limb from limb. You choose!"

_Darn. I'm getting good at this. Well, I can't blame myself – my friends just keep getting kidnapped._

After a bit of silence, Presea walked forward. Everything was totally black except for the floor, which was covered in white tiles. It had crimson splotches all over it. At first, Presea thought it was blood, but it appeared to have been painted on.

A figure seemed to be floating in the distance. When Presea caught sight of it, she quickened her pace.

_This is it. After this, we should be able to get home. Please, let me finish this quickly..._

"Hey!" Presea exclaimed, "Are you deaf? Or stupid?"

"I assure you, I am neither." the figure answered, "I am simply beyond your reach."

"That's what they all say before they bite the dust."

"Is it? Well, Presea, I am afraid that nothing of the sort shall happen."

"How-"

"How do I know your name? Because I am ultimate. Because I am better than you. I am Darkrai."

"Darkrai? Heh. I've heard of you from Colette. You're a Pokemon, right?"

"Hmph. Well-informed, I see. I assume that this comes from one of those 'games,' correct? From Prime World?"

"Yea, she is really into that nowadays. Now, then. Are you ready?"

Darkrai laughed, "You are foolish, girl. I have no intention of fighting you."

"What?"

"I did not take your companions away from you to challenge you. I merely mean to show you..."

Suddenly, black cords erupted form the ground and wrapped around Presea.

"...true fear."

"And...what will that accomplish?"

"Nothing. I just like to have fun with my prey before I kill it."

_Tch. Creepy bastard._

A large, holographic screen suddenly crackled into existence in front of the two. The screen was split into four, and each one displayed a very confused-looking picture of Presea's friends.

"But before I move onto you, I think I'll have fun with tomorrow's targets, as well. Now then, who should we start with? This Lucario? The dog? The Primerian? The Charizard? Yes...I think we'll start with that one."

The box with Charizard in it suddenly expanded to fill up the whole screen.

_And...so it begins._

~Charizard~  
>"Son of a bitch!" Charizard exclaimed, "I'm sick and tired of this blackness!"<p>

For the past ten minutes, everything had been totally black. If that wasn't enough, everyone had gotten lost.

"Dammit, I'll kill you people when I finally get back. Just you watch."

He saw a figure roughly ten meters away.

_It's one of those damn Wendigo things._

Charizard launched a Fire Blast at the creature. The Wendigo ran into the blast...which dissipated the second it made contact.

"What the f-"

The demon sped up, bolting forward and giving him a frozen punch to the face.

"Agh!" the fire Pokemon exclaimed in pain.

_What the hell? Why isn't fire working? It's an ice demon, dammit!_

Charizard stood his ground, wiping blood from his mouth. He let out his own punch, nailing the Wendigo in the face. It didn't even flinch. It kept moving, getting faster and faster.

In the distance, Charizard saw more of them.

"Ugh...what the hell is wrong with you things? You're weak! Just little snowmen with no-"

the others had caught up, and they were all joining in. Any time that he could breath in, he let out another curse. Pain shot through his body. The monsters were relentless. He was on the ground, receiving punch and kick alike. He coughed blood out, curling up into a ball.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..._

"Stop screwing with me! Just KILL ME!"

And it continued.

~Presea~

"Stop it! Stop hurting him!" Presea cried.

"Don't worry, girl." Darkrai said in a reassuring tone. "After all, it's not real. It's not like he'll really die."

"You might as well be killing him! All that pain! How...how can you live with yourself, you bastard?"

"Easily, as a matter of fact. Do you know how how bad this can get? I haven't even started. Next, they'll rend the flesh from his bone. They'll tear his limbs off. They'll gnaw on him, all while enjoying every second of his screams. He doesn't do that often, does he? He's more the tough one, isn't he? An understandable fear. He's being overpowered by 'weaklings.' Don't you see? That's what I do. I prey on my victims' minds. Their fear. I love it. I relish it. He's always been the strong one, eh? The big brother to everyone. Everyone trusts him. He's strong. He can do _anything_. But everyone is weak to something. And he is weak...to being weak. But that doesn't matter. Let's move on, shall we?"

~Amaterasu~

"Ugh...where am I? Have I been asleep this whole time?"

_Damn, _Ammy thought to herself, _where'd everyone go?_

Everything was empty and black.

_Well, the decorator sure didn't have a very good imagination, did he? The wallpaper is kind of depressing._

"Hello? Luca? Prez? Khlua? Charizard? Where are you guys?"

"You're a hard one to crack, Amaterasu." Darkrai said, materializing in front of her.

"Hey!" she yipped, "You're the one in charge here, right? Gimme back my friends!"

"Heh. No thanks. Although...I think it would be very entertaining to play with you for a bit longer, Goddess of the Sun."

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you deaf? I'm going to play with you. Your weakness...is harder to find than most. You are immortal. You do not fear death. It shall never come. You do not fear pain. It comes too often. You watch friends wither and die as you remain as strong as ever. Without fear of death or pain, you are certainly an interesting case. But everyone is afraid of something."

"Yea, and you know what? Pretty soon, _your_ fear will be of me."

"You cannot hurt me. This is my world, after all."

"As if."

Suddenly, a tree erupted through the ground next to Darkrai. He jumped away just quick enough to avoid the goddess's attack. Another tree came up, but when Darkrai dodged, a strong burst of wind blew him back into the tree's way. With a squelching sound, the tree shot through the Pokemon.

"H-How..." Darkrai muttered.

"I am the Sun. I am light. You never stood a chance."

Darkrai chuckled, "Gotcha."

The trees faded away and Darkrai dropped back down to the ground. He was totally unscathed; in perfect condition.

"Now do you see, Amaterasu? This is my world. Now then, why don't we get back to you, hm?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! Stop playing games and let me kill you already!"

"Well, well. I hope you don't mind the analogy, but you're acting a lot like a 'bitch in heat.' Could it be that...?"

"Shut up! I'm not gonna go along with your mind games, you-"

"I see. You're harboring the next wielder of the Sun, eh? Every expecting female has the same fear."

"What...? Next...wielder of the-"

"Of course! What would happen if I took this new life away?"

And then Amaterasu realized just what the Pokemon meant.

"No...you don't mean...I'm...?"

"Tsk, tsk. You didn't know? How irresponsible of you, Amaterasu. Not only failing as a goddess, but also as a mother? I'm ashamed. You don't deserve this 'light'."

And then the goddess felt a huge pain in her side.

"No, you wouldn't-"

"Oh, I would."

~Presea~  
>Ammy's screams filled the room, while blood filled the screen.<p>

"Just stop it already." Presea urged, "Stop it right now!"

"What? But I'm only halfway through the fun. Besides, it's all in their imagination...so far. It isn't real. Yet. For all she knows, I'm making the whole thing up."

_You bastard. How much are you going to_-

"Well, let's move on. I think I'll try the weird one now. Khlua, I think was his name?"

Presea struggled against her bonds, "No! Please, stop! Please..." at this point, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Why? Am I...hurting your friends? Does that hurt you?" he let loose a wicked smile, "That's funny. Very amusing. Now I have to do this one even more."

~Khlua~

"Uh, guys? Is anyone out there? Hello?"

Khlua had been walking around this blackness for a while. There was no sign of his friends or of any enemy. It was starting to worry him.

_Dammit, I'm out for one day and I'm all alone again. Am I just...destined to be alone? _

"Do I deserve to be alone, guys? For all I did? I wouldn't blame you guys, honestly. Just tell me. Just tell me so I can fix it. Please?" he laughed at himself, "Heh, I must look pretty pathetic, right now. Dumb old Khlua, can't even keep a friend for a few lousy months."

He looked up at the black sky. But it wasn't like it was a bit ago. It was more gray than black. Suddenly, a flash of lightning in the distance brightened the sky, with its thunder echoing throughout the blackness. Khlua took a few steps forward. Instead of cold, incorporeal blackness, his paw struck cold asphalt. He felt something cold hit his ear, and he realized it was raining.

"What?" he exclaimed, looking straight up, "Can't you at least let me wallow in self-pity for a few freaking seconds?"

Obviously, the answer was a "no," because the rain continued, no matter how much he yelled at the sky.

"Meh. Fine. This sorta brings back memories."

_But not good ones._

He kept walking along the road, hoping to find something. The road had no curves in it. There were no roadsigns, just straight out paved road. If he kept following it, he would eventually have to find something.

_I remember that night. It was years ago. We were all in the car, returning from some damn road trip. Everyone was so happy...Mom, Dad, me and...yea, her. We were headed down a road similar to this, but then..._

Then he realized something wet was streaming down his face, and it wasn't raindrops. He wiped his face and continued walking.

"That doesn't matter. Just keep looking, you stupid-"

"Khlua!" someone from behind exclaimed.

Khlua whirled around to see Lucario and Presea there.

"Guys – there you are!"

"We've been looking for you, Khlua." Lucario said, smiling a little.

"Yea," Presea agreed with a nod, "we were starting to worry. Are...are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm all right!" Khlua said, letting himself sigh with relief.

Suddenly, Khlua saw a bright light from behind them.

"Guys," he said, suddenly very scared, "we should get out of the road, right now."

"Why?" Presea asked, cocking her head.

"Is there some sort of problem?" Lucario asked.

"Get out of the damn road!" Khlua snapped.

But it was too late. With a screeching sound, everything went black.

When he woke up, his heart was beating at what felt like light speed. There was only one thing on his mind.

_I have to find them!_

"Guys!" he exclaimed, panicked, "Where are you?"

He looked down, and then he realized that he wouldn't find them. He was soaked in blood, the same blood that covered the streets.

He fell to his knees and suddenly felt very weak.

"No. No. No. No...not them too, not them too, not them, not again!"

~Presea~  
>At this point, Presea didn't even feel like saying anything. Besides, her eyes said it all.<p>

"Aw," Darkrai cooed, "at a loss for words, Presea? Not like you at all. You always kept the team together, safe and sound. But now they're all alone, and they'll be dead, soon. A person can only take so much, after all."

Darkrai just laughed again, waving his arm in front of the screen to signal the next horror-fest.

~Lucario~

Everything was black, and now everyone was gone. Just...  
><em>Just freaking wonderful. <em>

After wandering around for a bit, Lucario saw a small light in the distance.

"What's that?" he asked himself.

He moved faster and faster, until he was at a full-on sprint.

_Light at the end of the tunnel, eh? Well, I guess that's my best guess._

He kept running until he was immersed in a warm light. A little too warm. He looked around and saw that he was in a forest.

"Huh. This forest seems kinda familiar. Almost like-"

"Hey!" a gruff voice yelled from behind, "if you're only going to stay outside, at least give me a hand, will ya?"

_Oh my god – that can't be..._

"D-Dad...?" Lucario asked, slowly turning to face the speaker.

"Well, what did you think? Honestly, sometimes I have to wonder if you live in your own world."

"Uh...yea. That's uh, right."

"Are you all right? Ah, screw it. Go inside and help your mother with the cooking. Christmas only comes once a year – she's real excited about it. Same with your brother. Try to keep a smile on, 'kay?"

A Lucario slightly taller than himself, with a darker color of fur. Instead of crimson, his eyes appeared more of a brown. Lucario's father had broader shoulders than him, too. That was what he looked like when...  
>"Before you died..." Lucario said softly.<p>

"Hm? Did ya say something?

"Uh, nothing! I'll, uh, go help Mom."

Lucario turned and ran to a small hut with a straw roof.

_This isn't real. He died years ago. But what's up with all this? There's gotta be an explanation._

When he was inside the house, he leaned on the doorway. He wondered, _And where the hell is everyone else?_

"Dear, could you help me with this cooking?" a feminine voice called from what was the kitchen, "Your brother is doing a fine job of chopping the berries."

"Yea," another voice said, this time sounding much younger, "come in and help us!"

Lucario walked in a little further and saw a Riolu and a Lucario were busy cooking. The Riolu was using a makeshift knife made of bone to chop large pink berries. The Lucario was mixing dough in a clay bowl, waiting to put it in a tray lying next to a stone cabinet which appeared to be an oven of some sort.

"Uh, what do you want me to do, Mom?" Lucario asked, glancing around the room.

"Oh, can you grab some more flour? It's right in the storage bin over there..."

Lucario quickly snagged a paper bag from the bin. He handed it to "Mom."

"Oh," she cooed, "you're getting so big! Just yesterday you would have needed a chair to get up there!"

_That's right – I was just a Riolu when this happened. _

"Do you need anything else?" Lucario asked hopefully.

"My, you're helpful today, aren't you? What happened to 'it happens every year'? I thought this didn't matter."

"Well...I just have the feeling that we won't be able to do this...for a while."

"Aw, you're so mature! Give your old mom a hug, will you?"

She held her arms out, motioning for the Pokemon to come closer. He stepped into her arms and gave her a hug back. It was nice to feel genuinely loved again. It was something Khlua and the others could never replicate.

_Even if it isn't real, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, right? Just a little longer..._

"No fair!" the Riolu at the table exclaimed indignantly, "He just acted old and he got a hug, but I've been cutting berries _forever _and all I got was a lousy pat on the back!"

"Oh, it's only been thirty minutes!" their mother laughed, getting back to the cooking, "Besides, we have a long time to give each other hugs! Let's just get back to the dinner, 'kay?"

"Okay."

"Now why don't you scoot over and let your brother help you with that, dear?"

"Sure!"

The Riolu eagerly scooted across the wooden bench, allowing enough room for Lucario to sit down. Lucario took a seat and picked up a bone knife. It was a little bit small, but it would function well. He picked up a berry and cut it in half, picked up another and repeated the process. He was moving much faster than the smaller Pokemon next to him, which confused the Riolu.

"How can you cut so fast, brother? The last time you did this was last year!"

"Well," he replied, "it'll go faster if you hold the berry like this...and make a cut towards your thumb."

"But I'm afraid I'll cut myself!"

"Don't worry about it so much. You've always been good with a knife, after all."

"Okay..."

The Riolu held the berry and rested the knife underneath it. Then, he cut upwards. The berry quickly fell into two halves.

"I did it!" the Riolu exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air, "I did it!"

"Yea." Lucario said with a smile.

"It was so much easier."

"Should be." Lucario glanced at his brother's paw, "Hey, it looks like you ended up cutting yourself, though. Want me to get a bandage for it?"

"Stop treating me like a little kid! We're hardly a year apart! I'll go get the bandage _myself_."

"No," the mother Lucario urged, "you'll go get your father. The berries are all cut up and the pie is done cooking. I even made extra dough so we can make another tomorrow."

Lucario sniffed the air and said, "Is that...Watmel pie?"

"Yep!" the mother said proudly, "Your favorite! Didn't I tell you I was making some?"

"Yea...I must've forgot."

Soon, the table was set and the whole family was ready to eat. There was a wide assortment of berries and of course, a large pie in the center of the table.

"I even baked some sweet potatoes, too. Do try some, everyone." the mother said sweetly.

"More _human_ food?" the father said, disgusted, "They've attacked every forest in the area, recently. Damn poachers; they even dare to call themselves 'trainers.' The only ones that'll need training are them when I rip their tongues out."

"Now, now. Don't be so violent. Besides, I'm technically using their own food against them."

"Tch. Damn humans."

"You did _not_ just use the 'D-Word' in front of the K-I-D's, did you?"

"Uh, no ma'am."

"Oh yes you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Oh yes."

"No, I-"

"Would both of you knock it off?" Lucario pleaded, standing up with his hands on the table.

"Uh, of course." his father replied, slightly surprised.

The Riolu picked up a sweet potato with his fork and took a small bite, only to gag.

"Gah!" he sputtered, "It tastes like crap! You eat it!" he insisted, shoving it in Lucario's face.

"Uh, no thanks, I have my own-"

The Riolu lunged at him, "EAT. THE. POTATO!"

Lucario fell off of his bench and ended up on the floor with a potato in his mouth. He chomped down on it and swallowed, "You know, it's not _that_ bad. Tastes kinda like Oran berries."

That received a laugh from the whole family. Suddenly, a loud banging sound was heard outside.

Lucario's mother and father rose from the table.

"Stay here." the father insisted, "We'll check that out."

"No!" Lucario exclaimed, "Stay here!"

_Dammit, I know how this ends!_

"Don't worry, boy. We'll only be out for a second."

The two Lucario ran out, and just as Lucario remembered, two loud bangs were heard.

_No! Dammit!_

"Brother," the Riolu said, "let's go check on Mom and Dad."

Then, the Riolu, too, marched mindlessly to his death. The sound of something heavy falling and then a muffled scream.

_It's not real! It's not real! It's not-_

"It's not real!" Lucario exclaimed.

The floor started cracking apart, and the walls seemed to fade in and out.

"It's not real!"

The floor split open more, and Lucario found himself falling into the dismal blackness.

"It's not real!"

Lucario awoke with a jolt, seeing the others all sprawled out on the cave floor.

"Damn," he said, "I was dreaming the whole time."

He saw Charizard curled up by a rock, Ammy by the fire and Presea and Khlua sleeping back to back. But they weren't sleeping soundly. They were all trembling, muttering words of despair.

First, he shook Khlua awake.

"Not them...not them..." Khlua was muttering.

"Wake up!" Lucario exclaimed, "It isn't real!"

"Wha..." Khlua asked, rubbing his eyes, "L-Lucario?"

"Yea," the Pokemon said, smiling, "are you all right?"

"What do you mean 'are you all right'? You were...you were..."

"Khlua. It wasn't real. Whatever happened wasn't real."

Khlua let out a shuddering breath and said, "Thank God...thank God..."

"Khlua, let's go wake everyone else up."

Lucario went to go wake up Ammy and Charizard, who woke up pretty easily. On the other hand, Presea wasn't waking up no matter what Khlua did. He kept shaking her, but she just murmured quicker and quicker.

"Lucario!" Khlua exclaimed, "She isn't waking up!"

Lucario, Charizard and Ammy bolted over to see if they could help. Presea looked incredibly disturbed. Suddenly, she starting flailing around. Everyone jumped back. Presea's body suddenly lifted into a standing position and her eyes opened, revealing a blank crimson stare.

A voice other than hers echoed throughout the room, "Greetings, Smashers. I'm surprised that you all managed to wake from the Dark Void. I am Darkrai, and I'm afraid you aren't leaving that easily."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Khlua asked angrily, "Give her back!"

"No. I don't wanna."

"You sound like a three year old. Is that what we're dealing with, Darkrai?"

"Of course not. After all, I was intelligent enough to know each and every one of your fears. Charizard, you grew up in a world full of hate. It was 'kill or be killed.' You were afraid that the world would go back to that, and you would be totally defenseless. Amaterasu, you're afraid that something that you've only begun to understand will be taken away from you. Khlua, you've been afraid of cars ever since your family got into an accident with a drunk driver. Lucario, you're afraid of losing everyone you hold dear, and not being able to do anything. But of all the people here, Presea had the most amusing fear. She's afraid that her friends will be hurt, especially if it's her fault. Back in her own world, a girl named Colette was kidnapped and could have died just because she stood there and did nothing."

"So," Charizard said smugly, "are you just gonna sit there and talk, or can we beat the shit out of you and get Prez back?"

"I think I'll talk, thank you very much."

"Talking's for pussies. Besides, if you don't give her back, I have a feeling you should worry about what Kloo-Kloo's gonna do to you."

"You mean Khlua?" Darkrai turned to look at Khlua, "Aw, do you _like_ her?"

"Shut up, you son of a bitch!" Khlua exclaimed, jumping at "Darkrai," who floated out of the way, "Just listening to you makes me sick!"

Darkrai cackled, "Fun. But if you hurt me, you'll run the risk of hurting poor Presea here." Darkrai-in-Presea's-body picked up Presea's ax and swung it over his shoulder, "You wouldn't want to do that, would you? Keh heh heh..."

_Dammit, _Lucario thought to himself, _now the bastard's just playing with him..._

Khlua lunged at him again, but Darkrai dodged out of the way. Lucario hurled an Aura Sphere at him, but he actually _cut_ it with Presea's ax.

"Damn!" Lucario exclaimed, "This isn't like a Smash battle, guys! You'll have to think out of the box!"

Suddenly, Charizard threw Amaterasu at Darkrai. He seemed to dodge it, but in mid-air, vines extended from Amaterasu's back and grasped onto him.

"Wh-what was _that_ about?" Lucario exclaimed to Charizard.

"Well...you said to think outside of the box. So...I did. I thought it was a smart idea."

"A smart idea? From you? Please."

The guys walked over to Darkrai, who was now tied to the ground with a large amount of vines.

"Charizard," Amaterasu said sweetly, "next time, warn me before you throw me at a psychopathic ghost, okay?"

"Hey," Khlua said, "it worked, didn't it?"

Khlua walked up to Darkrai and looked straight down at him, and said, "So, how long are you gonna keep us waiting?"

"Fool. I have an eternity."

"What a coincidence. So do we."

_Bluffing isn't gonna cut it..._ Lucario thought to himself, _we need that freak out and we need him out now. But we don't know how to get him out or what to use..._

Suddenly, a sound came at the entrance to the cave. Everyone turned to see Cerberus.

"Uh..." Cerberus said, staring at the scene, "I thought she was your guys' friend. Or am I missing something here?"

"Yes. Yes you are." Khlua said.

"Uh, I brought some people along, in case you want to string them up too..."

"No, you have the wrong idea. Presea is tied up because she's being possessed by a sadistic, psychopathic Pokemon."

"What kind of Pokemon?" Colette asked, jumping into the cave.

"C-Colette? How did you...never mind. It's a Darkrai."

"Darkrai is a dark Pokemon, so did you try hitting it with any fighting-type attacks?"

"Well...when he wasn't tied up, yes. But...he cut it in half."

"Cut what in half?"

"The Aura Sphere!"

"Oh. Well, why don't you try it again?"

Everyone glanced around at each other and Lucario asked, "Well, he's inside Presea, and it might hurt her..."

"Oh, don't worry." the angel reassured him, "She bruises about as easily as a rock."

"Colette!" Khlua exclaimed, "You used a simile! I'm so proud of you!"

"I...don't know how to respond to that."

Everyone backed up from Presea, except for Lucario, who stepped forward.

"This might sting a little, Prez. Just...don't kill me when you wake up, okay?"

"What are you doing?" Darkrai exclaimed as he struggled against his bonds, "I'm still inside of her body! No! You can't get rid of any antagonist that easily!"

Khlua leaned over to Colette and whispered, "Why do I feel like we've been transported into a sappy shonen manga?"

"Maybe we _live_ in a sappy shonen manga." Colette responded, "Never thought of that, did you?"

Before Lucario had the chance to fire the Aura Sphere, Presea's body relaxed and a dark aura shot out of it and out of the cave.

"What...happened?" Presea asked.

"Nothing much," Lucario said, helping her up, "an evil Pokemon put us to sleep, made us live through angst-y moments, got the crap beaten out of him, possessed your body, got tied up and left. How about you?"

"Um...I'm glad you're all okay. Even if they were just dreams."

"See?" Khlua whispered to Colette again, "Sappy shonen manga. It got all angst-y in the beginning and now it's ending with comedy."

"Well," Colette said cheerfully, "sometimes you just gotta have some comedy in your life. If all life was just full of angst, then it wouldn't be much fun, would it?"

"I guess you have a point. Which reminds me-" he looked at Charizard, "I believe you said something a little earlier? It was...right before the battle with Darkrai? Now then...WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY THAT?"

"Uh..." the fire Pokemon said, frantically looking for an answer, "it kinda pissed you off...and uh...you fought a lot harder when he started playing with your head..."

"Admit it! You just wanted to screw with me!"

Khlua lunged at Charizard, who dodged out of the way and flew over to the other side of the cave. Khlua jumped at him again, but Charizard got out of the way.

"H-hey, it was just an attempt to lighten the mood!"

"I'll lighten YOUR mood, you son of a—"

"Well," Lucario said, watching from afar, "I think everyone's back to normal-ish."

"Yea." Presea agreed, "Back to normal-ish."

END~

**Sorry for you angst fans – the angst-y ending I was planning was so depressing that it stopped me from writing it, so I decided to take some advice and go for the comedy. From now on, I'll be sure to write with a little more comedy, so as not to scare people away. ^_^ But anyways, if you wanted to know what happens directly after this, they all go home. The next chapter will be taking place BACK at the mansion. FINALLY. Geez, I'm so glad I can go back to the more comical area. All this angst was starting to depress even ME. The AUTHOR. Anyways...I hope I can get this Arc done in a hurry, because the Second Arc mixes better with comedy...**


End file.
